Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
Chapter Review
The United States’ foreign policy impacts the lives of ordinary Americans through
its involvement in national security, trade, and human rights. Given its wide-ranging
effects, foreign policy is conflictual. Foreign policy also illustrates how much
the political process matters. The president plays a central role in designing foreign
policy, but his decisions are put in check by congressional control over federal
spending and judicial review exercised by federal judges.
What Is Foreign Policy?
Foreign policy refers to government actions involving countries,
groups, and corporations that lie outside America’s borders. Foreign policy includes
military operations, economic interactions, human rights policies, environmental
agreements, foreign aid, democracy assistance, interventions in civil wars and other
conflicts, and international efforts to limit weapons of mass destruction, including
nuclear weapons.
The goals behind many foreign policy actions are varied and complex. Because foreign
policy is often complex, debates over what the United States should do in a particular
situation are often framed in terms of general principles or rules: unilateral versus
multilateral action, isolationism versus internationalism, and idealism versus realism.
- Unilateral action occurs when one country does something on its
own, without coordinating with other countries.
- American foreign policy more commonly involves multilateral action
by the United States alongside other countries or international organizations such
as the United Nations.
- Isolationism is the idea that the United States should refrain
from involvement in international affairs.
- Internationalism is the idea that the United States should be involved
in the affairs of other nations, out of both self-interest and moral obligation.
- Realism is the idea that a country’s foreign policy decisions are
motivated by self-interest and the goal of gaining more power.
- Idealism is the idea that a country’s foreign policy decisions
are based on factors beyond self-interest, including upholding important principles
or values. Nation building, the use of American resources, including
the military, to help create democratic institutions abroad and prevent violence
in other countries, is an idealist perspective.
- The History of American Foreign Policy
- Until America’s entry into World War I in 1917, American foreign policy was primarily
but not completely isolationist. America’s distance from Europe prevented conflict,
so isolationism made sense. The Monroe Doctrine, initiated under
President James Monroe in 1823, stated that the United States would remain neutral
in conflicts between European nations, and that these nations should stop colonizing
or occupying areas of North and South America.
- A great transition in American foreign policy occurred during World War II (1939–1945),
when the United States joined the Allied Powers, including Great Britain and the
Soviet Union, in forming joint plans and sharing military hardware and intelligence.
After World War II, the consensus among American politicians and scholars was that
the United States should be a central actor in world affairs. This new policy was
justified by realist arguments, such as the need to deter future conflicts and the
desire for economic benefits from trading with other nations. Idealists argued for
the same policies on grounds that America had a moral obligation to preserve world
peace.
- After World War II came the Cold War, the period of tension and
arms competition between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from
1954 until 1981. Some diplomats argued for containment,
the idea that America should use diplomatic, economic, and military means to prevent
the Soviet Union from expanding the set of countries that it controlled or was allied
with.
- America also maintained large military forces, beginning its first peacetime draft
in the 1950s and building a large store of nuclear weapons. These weapons were intended
to deter war with the Soviet Union through the threat of mutually
assured destruction, the idea that even if the Soviet Union unleashed
an all-out nuclear assault on U.S. forces, enough American weapons would remain
intact to deliver a similarly devastating counterattack. At this time, American
foreign policy was motivated by the domino theory, which posited
that the creation of one Soviet-backed communist nation would lead to the spread
of communism in that nation’s region.
- Beginning in the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon and his national security
advisor, Henry Kissinger, began a process of détente with the Soviet
Union, a series of negotiations and cultural exchanges designed to reduce tensions
and find issues on which the two superpowers could cooperate. The real change in
U.S.-Soviet relations began with the selection of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of
the Soviet Union in 1985, and his policies of glasnost (“openness”) and
perestroika (“restructuring”).
- The end of the Cold War, along with the increase in the number of democracies worldwide
and the development of democratic peace theories, suggested to some observers that
military conflicts would become much rarer, so that other concerns would become
more influential in America’s foreign policy. To a certain extent, this theory has
proven to be true.
- In response to security threats, President George W. Bush announced a new U.S. policy,
the Bush Doctrine, or the doctrine of preemption, whereby the United
States would not wait until after an attack to respond but would use military force
to eliminate potential threats before they could be put in motion. This policy was
behind the decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
Foreign Policy Makers
- The President and the Executive Branch
- The president is the dominant actor in American foreign policy. The president and
his staff can negotiate treaties or executive agreements with other nations, change
policy through executive orders or findings, mobilize public opinion to prompt action
by Congress, and shape foreign policy by appointing people to agencies and departments
that administer these policies. The president also serves as the commander in chief
of America’s armed forces.
- While the Constitution grants the president several foreign policy powers, including
naming him military commander in chief, the document does not set explicit limits
on exactly what the president can and cannot do. This ambiguity has given presidents
the latitude to make foreign policy as they see fit. Members of Congress who disagree
with the president must build veto-proof, two-thirds majorities in the House and
Senate in order to overturn presidential foreign policy actions.
- Within the Executive Office of the President (EOP), the principal foreign policy
agency is the National Security Council (NSC),
which focuses on developing and presenting foreign policy options to the president.
- Congress
- Two standing committees, the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House and the Foreign
Relations Committee in the Senate, are responsible for writing legislation that
deals with foreign policy.
- Congress holds three types of influence over foreign policy: the power of the purse
the Senate’s power to approve treaties and confirm the appointments of senior members
of the president’s foreign policy team, and the power to declare war on other nations.
- The Federal Courts
- The federal courts exercise judicial review, determining whether laws, regulations,
and presidential actions are consistent with the Constitution.
- Groups Outside the Federal Government
- Interest groups work to convince elected officials and bureaucrats to implement
policy changes in line with their group’s goals. Many interest groups exist to lobby
the government over foreign policy.
- Media coverage is a prime source of information about domestic and foreign policy
for most Americans, but Americans’ opinions are not driven solely by the media’s
representation of an issue.
- Foreign policy decisions are sensitive to public opinion, but public opinion is
not always reflected in foreign policy for the following reasons: public opinion
is difficult to measure, politicians sometimes follow their own agendas, and many
Americans lack knowledge about other countries.
- Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are groups
operated by private institutions (rather than governments) to promote growth, economic
development, and other agendas throughout the world. The World Bank
is an NGO established in 1944 that provides financial support for economic development
projects in developing nations. The International Monetary Fund
is an NGO established in 1944 to help stabilize the international monetary system,
improve economic growth, and aid developing nations.
- The United Nations (UN) is an international organization made up
of representatives from nearly every nation, with a mission to promote peace and
cooperation, uphold international law, and provide humanitarian aid.
The Tools of Foreign Policy
- Military Force
- Used throughout the world as a deterrent, America’s military force is a fundamental
tool of foreign policy.
- The size and power of America’s military provides numerous options for policy makers,
but military force is not all-powerful.
- Trade and Economic Policies
- Foreign policy is also aimed at sustaining economic growth in the United States
and elsewhere, as well as creating foreign markets for the goods produced by America’s
domestic industries.
- The main tools of trade policy are tariffs and trade agreements. A tariff
is a tax levied on imported and exported goods, while a trade agreement
is a contract between nations that specifies tariff levels and sets terms on which
goods can be imported and exported. By adjusting tariff rates, the government can
help or hurt domestic industries. High tariffs on imports help American producers
to charge lower prices than foreign competitors, while low tariffs on exports help
American producers sell to overseas markets.
- Free trade zones are designated areas where tariffs on imports
and exports between specific countries do not apply.
- The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international
organization created in 1995 to oversee trade agreements between nations by facilitating
negotiation and handling disputes.
- The United States has granted many countries most-favored-nation status,
a standing awarded to countries with which the United States has good trade relations,
providing the lowest possible tariff rate. WTO members must give one another this
preferred status.
- The United States can use free trade agreements and tariffs to bargain with countries
for concessions in other areas. Economic policies are also used to threaten or
sanction countries as a way of inducing them to change their behavior.
- Diplomacy
- Diplomacy is the process of negotiation on international issues
between national leaders. Sometimes these efforts involve the threat of military
action or economic sanctions or incentives such as economic assistance or other
forms of aid.
- Shuttle diplomacy refers to negotiations carried out by a third-party
mediator who travels between two nations to relay information should those two nations’
negotiators refuse to meet face-to-face.
- Foreign Aid
- Foreign aid includes money, products, or services given to other countries or the
citizens of these countries. It can be driven by humanitarian efforts, to stimulate
economic growth, or to facilitate international agreements.
- The level of American nonmilitary foreign aid in 2007, measured as a percentage
of gross national income is relatively low compared to that of other members of
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),.
- Alliances and Treaties
- A treaty is a formal written agreement between nations involving
security, trade or economic development, human rights, or other important policies.
- An alliance is an agreement between two or more countries pledging
support if one of those countries is attacked.
- America is a member of many international alliances, most notably the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance among the United States,
Canada, and several European nations originally created to provide security against
the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
- A bilateral agreement is a treaty between two nations. A
multilateral agreement is a treaty among multiple nations.
The Politics of Foreign Policy
Conflict over foreign policy comes from several sources, including Americans’ different
ideas of what foreign policy should look like. Disagreements over foreign policy
may also reflect citizens’ exposure to different information or their disparate
ways of understanding the world at large. Furthermore, conflict arises from differing
expectations about whether policies will work as intended.
Conflict can occur between members of different political parties, as well as members
of the same party. For example, members of the Republican Party were split over
the war in Iraq. Moreover, disagreements are not uncommon among a president’s senior
appointees. In sum, disagreements about foreign policy are unavoidable, both in
government and among the general public.
Contemporary Foreign Policy Issues
From global warming to weapons of mass destruction, the following issues illustrate
that foreign policy is everywhere. These issues demonstrate the power of the political
process in foreign policy making; decisions reflect the people who make them and
the rules that structure the debates.
- Global Warming
- In some ways, the solution to global warming seems straightforward: the nations
of the world must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by limiting carbon-producing activities
and by developing cheaper and more efficient energy sources that produce less carbon.
The solution may be clear, but it is not easy to enact; research is expensive, and
new technologies may carry their own environmental and economic impacts.
- Another complication is that efforts to combat global warming require spending money
in the present to prevent effects that will only be felt over the next century.
As a result, legislation to reduce carbon emissions may not be very popular with
the average American who pays for such policies in taxes.
- Addressing global warming requires a multilateral effort. The Kyoto Protocol
is an international agreement signed in 1997 that set limits on carbon emissions
in an effort to slow global warming.
- Human Rights
- In many countries, the freedoms set out in the American Bill of Rights simply do
not exist. Organizations such as Freedom House and Amnesty International publicize
human rights violations, with the goal of alerting citizens worldwide and thereby
pressuring governments to end these violations.
- The United States’ status as the most powerful nation in the world, coupled with
the logic of idealism, suggests to some that America should protect human rights
throughout the world. A realist would counter with three arguments: there is relatively
little support among the American people for protecting human rights in other countries,
attempts to protect human rights around the world may make it harder for the United
States to achieve other goals, and protecting human rights may strain American military
forces.
- International Trade
- Many economic analyses describe trade in terms of the theory of comparative advantage,
which says that nations export items they can produce cheaply, in return for their
imports that can be produced more efficiently elsewhere.
- A trend toward globalization has been observed in recent years. Thus, the last generation
of American politics has been marked by international agreements such as the North
America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
- The United States has been force to respond to two issues: how should it respond
to nations that close off their markets, and how can it help people who are hurt
by globalization?
- Iraq
- Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, American military personnel and civilians
have attempted to quell a violent insurgency, rebuild the country’s economic and
social infrastructure, and encourage the development of a stable democracy. This
effort has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and over 4,000 American lives.
- Despite recent improvements in the situation in Iraq, it is unclear when the Iraqi
government will have sufficient forces to maintain security throughout the country
without substantial American help. Gains in Iraq have been achieved at high cost,
with the army’s stocks of vehicles and weaponry depleted and few ground forces available
to send to other crises.
- Terrorism
- There have been no major terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001, but terrorist
organizations have carried out bombings in London, Madrid, Bali, and Kenya.
- One theory is that terrorism results from a clash of civilizations,
motivated by a hatred of Western culture and religion. If this is the case, then
America faces a long war, with no room for negotiations. One study found that strong
anti-American sentiments, however, are held by only a narrow range of organizations
and individuals, not an entire region, race, or religion.
- Another controversial issue has involved the questions of what to do with terror
suspects.
- Weapons of Mass Destruction
- The term weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) refers to weapons that
have the potential to cause large-scale loss of life, such as nuclear bombs and
chemical or biological weapons.
- Most nations signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, which prohibited the development
of nuclear weapons and mandated inspection of civilian nuclear installations by
the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). All signatories were
also supposed to destroy their stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons.
- Two developments put WMDs on the foreign policy agenda. First, there were new efforts
to develop nuclear weapons. Second, when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991,
many of its former states had bases or depots containing nuclear weapons.
- These developments raise two concerns for American decision makers. First, an increase
in the number of nations with nuclear weapons elevates the chances that such weapons
will be used. Second, the proliferation of nuclear weapons might enable terrorist
organizations to buy or steal weapons.
- Multilateral efforts have discouraged some countries from building nuclear weapons.
The approach has emphasized incentives as well as threats—economic and military
sanctions are used to pressure nations, while economic aid is promised to nations
who give up their weapons programs.
- The United States is faced with the question of how to deal with a nation that refuses
to give up WMDs or what to do if WMDs fall into the hands of a terror organization.
- Other Foreign Policy Issues
- The global economy has been a recent concern of the United States.
- Resource availability, including oil and natural gas, has been another pressing
issue. American consumers and corporations are now competing more intensely for
resources than in past decades.
- American foreign policy makes have had to decide whether to mediate between Israel
and the Palestinians.
- American citizens and elected officials must decide when America should defer to
the judgments of international organizations. This decision is especially difficult
knowing that these organizations have the potential to act against the interests
of individual Americans, American businesses, or the country as a whole.