Chapter 17 Foreign Policy
PL-102-OL1
Instructor Walter Pearn
Chapter Objectives
Explain what foreign policy is and how it differs from domestic policy.
Identify the objectives of U.S. foreign policy.
Describe the different types of foreign policy.
Identify the U.S. government’s main challenges in the foreign policy realm.
Describe the outputs of broadly focused U.S. foreign policy.
Describe the outputs of sharply focused U.S. foreign policy.
Analyze the role of Congress in foreign policy.
Chapter Objectives
Describe the use of shared power in U.S. foreign policymaking.
Explain why presidents lead more in foreign policy than in domestic policy.
Discuss why individual House and Senate members rarely venture into foreign policy.
List the actors who engage in foreign policy.
Explain classic schools of thought on U.S. foreign policy.
Describe contemporary schools of thought on U.S. foreign policy.
Delineate the U.S. foreign policy approach with Russia and China.
What is foreign policy?
This definition highlights some of the key topics in U.S. foreign policy, such as national goals abroad and the way the United States tries to achieve them.
Note too that we distinguish foreign policy, which is externally focused, from domestic policy, which sets strategies internal to the United States, though the two types of policies can become quite intertwined.
For example, one might talk about Latino politics as a domestic issue when considering educational policies designed to increase the number of Hispanic Americans who attend and graduate from a U.S. college or university.
However, as demonstrated in the primary debates leading up to the 2016 election, Latino politics can quickly become a foreign policy matter when considering topics such as immigration from and foreign trade with countries in Central America and South America
the objectives of U.S. foreign policy
Four main goals to foreign policy:
(1) the protection of the U.S. and its citizens.
(2) the maintenance of access to key resources and markets.
(3) the preservation of a balance of power in the world.
(4) the protection of human rights and democracy.
Goals of Foreign Policy
In an economic boycott, the United States ceases trade with another country unless or until it changes a policy to which the United States objects. Ceasing trade means U.S. goods cannot be sold in that country and its goods cannot be sold in the United States.
The second main goal of U.S. foreign policy is to ensure the nation maintains access to key resources and markets across the world. Resources include natural resources, such as oil, and economic resources, including the infusion of foreign capital investment for U.S. domestic infrastructure projects like buildings, bridges, and weapons systems.
Goals of Foreign Policy
A third main goal is the preservation of a balance of power in the world.
A balance of power means no one nation or region is much more powerful militarily than are the countries of the rest of the world.
The achievement of a perfect balance of power is probably not possible, but general stability, or predictability in the operation of governments, strong institutions, and the absence of violence within and between nations may be.
The fourth main goal of U.S. foreign policy is the protection of human rights and democracy. The payoff of stability that comes from other U.S. foreign policy goals is peace and tranquility.
The United Nations (UN)
The United Nations (UN) is perhaps the foremost international organization in the world today.
The main institutional bodies of the UN are the General Assembly and the Security Council.
The General Assembly includes all member nations and admits new members and approves the UN budget by a two-thirds majority.
The Security Council includes fifteen countries, five of which are permanent members (including the United States) and ten that are non-permanent and rotate on a five two-year-term basis.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Another cross-national organization to which the United States is tied, and that exists to forcefully represent Western allies and in turn forge the peace, is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
NATO was formed after World War II as the Cold War between East and West started to emerge.
While more militaristic in approach than the United Nations, NATO has the goal of protecting the interests of Europe and the West and the assurance of support and defense from partner nations.
However, while it is a strong military coalition, it has not sought to expand and take over other countries. Rather, the peace and stability of Europe are its main goals.
NATO initially included only Western European nations and the United States. However, since the end of the Cold War, additional countries from the East, such as Turkey, have entered into the NATO alliance.
Trade Policy
Trade policy is the way the United States interacts with other countries to ease the flow of commerce and goods and services between countries.
A country is said to be engaging in protectionism when it does not permit other countries to sell goods and services within its borders, or when it charges them very high tariffs (or import taxes) to do so.
At the other end of the spectrum is a free trade approach, in which a country allows the unfettered flow of goods and services between itself and other countries.
At times the United States has been free trade–oriented, while at other times it has been protectionist. Perhaps its most free trade–oriented move was the 1991 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
This pact removed trade barriers and other transaction costs levied on goods moving between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
balance of trade
The balance of trade is the relationship between a country’s inflow and outflow of goods.
The United States sells many goods and services around the world, but overall it maintains a trade deficit, in which more goods and services are coming in from other countries than are going out to be sold overseas.
The current U.S. trade deficit is $37.4 billion, which means the value of what the United States imports from other countries is much larger than the value of what it exports to other countries.
This trade deficit has led some to advocate for protectionist trade policies.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the establishment and maintenance of a formal relationship between countries that governs their interactions on matters as diverse as tourism, the taxation of goods they trade, and the landing of planes on each other’s runways.
While diplomatic relations are not always rosy, when they are operating it does suggest that things are going well between the countries.
Diplomatic relations are formalized through the sharing of ambassadors.
Ambassadors are country representatives who live and maintain an office (known as an embassy) in the other country. Just as exchanging ambassadors formalizes the bilateral relationship between countries, calling them home signifies the end of the relationship.
Diplomacy tends to be the U.S. government’s first step when it tries to resolve a conflict with another country.
Public Laws
Public laws, sometimes called statutes, are policies that affect more than a single individual.
All policies enacted by Congress and the president are public laws, except for a few dozen each year.
They differ from private laws, which require some sort of action or payment by a specific individual or individuals named in the law.
Many statutes affect what the government can do in the foreign policy realm, including the National Security Act, the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act, and the War Powers Resolution.
Public Laws
The National Security Act governs the way the government shares and stores information.
The Patriot Act (passed immediately after 9/11) clarifies what the government may do in collecting information about people in the name of protecting the country.
The Homeland Security Act of 2002 authorized the creation of a massive new federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security, consolidating powers that had been under the jurisdiction of several different agencies.
The War Powers Resolution was passed in 1973 by a congressional override of President Richard Nixon’s veto. The bill was Congress’s attempt to reassert itself in war-making.
Congress has the power to declare war, but it had not formally done so since Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II.
Yet the United States had entered several wars since that time, including in Korea, in Vietnam, and in focused military campaigns such as the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
The War Powers Resolution created a new series of steps to be followed by presidents in waging military conflict with other countries.
Reauthorization
All federal agencies, including those dedicated to foreign policy, face reauthorization every three to five years.
If not reauthorized, agencies lose their legal standing and the ability to spend federal funds to carry out programs.
Agencies typically are reauthorized, because they coordinate carefully with presidential and congressional staff to get their affairs in order when the time comes.
The foreign policy and defense budgets are part of the discretionary budget, or the section of the national budget that Congress vets and decides on each year.
Foreign policy leaders in the executive and legislative branches must advocate for funding from this budget, and while foreign policy budgets are usually renewed, there are enough proposed changes each year to make things interesting.
Agreements
The U.S. Constitution outlines the treaty process in Article II. The president negotiates a treaty, the Senate consents to the treaty by a two-thirds vote, and finally the president ratifies it.
Despite that constitutional clarity, today over 90 percent of the international agreements into which the United States enters are not treaties but rather executive agreements.
Executive agreements are negotiated by the president, and in the case of sole executive agreements, they are simultaneously approved by the president as well.
On the other hand, congressional-executive agreements, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), are negotiated by the president and then approved by a simple majority of the House and Senate (rather than a two-thirds vote in the Senate as is the case for a treaty).
Appointments
The last broad type of foreign policy output consists of the foreign policy appointments made when a new president takes office.
Typically, when the party in the White House changes, more new appointments are made than when the party does not change, because the incoming president wants to put in place people who share his or her agenda.
Most foreign policy–related appointments, such as secretary of state and the various undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, as well as all ambassadors, must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate.
Presidents seek to nominate people who know the area to which they’re being appointed and who will be loyal to the president rather than to the bureaucracy in which they might work.
Isolationists might seek to pull back from foreign policy involvement around the globe, while internationalists would go in the other direction, toward more involvement and toward acting in conjunction with other countries.
SHARPLY FOCUSED FOREIGN POLICY OUTPUTS
These sharply focused foreign policy outputs tend to be exclusively the province of the president, including the:
Deployment of troops and/or intelligence agents in a crisis
Executive summits between the president and other heads of state on targeted matters of foreign policy
Presidential use of military force
Emergency funding measures to deal with foreign policy crises.
Emergency spending does involve Congress through its power of the purse, but Congress tends to give presidents what they need to deal with emergencies.
The framers were consistent in wanting checks and balances sprinkled throughout the Constitution, including in the area of foreign policy and war powers. Hence, Congress has several roles, as discussed at points throughout this chapter.
FOREIGN POLICY AND SHARED POWER
While presidents are more empowered by the Constitution in foreign than in domestic policy, they nonetheless must seek approval from Congress on a variety of matters; chief among these is the basic budgetary authority needed to run foreign policy programs.
Indeed, most if not all of the foreign policy instruments described earlier in this chapter require interbranch approval to go into effect.
The United States is a separation-of-powers political system with authority divided among executive and legislative branches, including in the foreign policy realm.
| Roles of the President and Congress in Conducting Foreign Policy | ||
| Policy Output | Presidential Role | Congressional Role |
| Public laws | Proposes, signs into law | Proposes, approves for passage |
| Agency reauthorizations | Proposes, signs into law | Approves for passage |
| Foreign policy budget | Proposes, signs into law | Authorizes/appropriates for passage |
| Treaties | Negotiates, ratifies | Senate consents to treaty (two-thirds) |
| Sole executive agreements | Negotiates, approves | None (unless funding is required) |
| Congressional-executive agreements | Negotiates | Approves by majority vote |
| Declaration of war | Proposes | Approves by majority vote |
| Military use of force | Carries out operations at will (sixty days) | Approves for operations beyond sixty days |
| Presidential appointments | Nominates candidates | Senate approves by majority vote |
THE TWO PRESIDENCIES THESIS
The Constitution names the president as the commander-in-chief of the military, the nominating authority for executive officials and ambassadors, and the initial negotiator of foreign agreements and treaties.
The president is the agenda-setter for foreign policy and may move unilaterally in some instances.
Beyond the Constitution, presidents were also gradually given more authority to enter into international agreements without Senate consent by using the executive agreement.
Given all these powers, we have good reason to expect presidents to have more influence and be more successful in foreign than in domestic policy.
THE TWO PRESIDENCIES THESIS
A second reason for the stronger foreign policy presidency has to do with the informal aspects of power.
In some eras, Congress will be more willing to allow the president to be a clear leader and speak for the country.
For instance, the Cold War between the Eastern bloc countries (led by the Soviet Union) and the West (led by the United States and Western European allies) prompted many to want a single actor to speak for the United States. A willing Congress allowed the president to take the lead because of urgent circumstances
THE PERSPECTIVE OF HOUSE AND SENATE MEMBERS
Congress is a bicameral legislative institution with 100 senators serving in the Senate and 435 representatives serving in the House.
Domestic policy matters resonate more strongly with the voters at home:
A sluggish economy
Increasing health care costs
Crime
Foreign policy is not at the top of many voters’ minds. In the end, legislators must be responsive to constituents in order to be good representatives and to achieve reelection.
THE PERSPECTIVE OF HOUSE AND SENATE MEMBERS
First, congressional party leaders in the majority and minority parties speak on behalf of their institution and their party on all types of issues, including foreign policy.
Some House and Senate members ask to serve on the foreign policy committees, such as the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the two defense committees.
These members might have military bases within their districts or states and hence have a constituency reason for being interested in foreign policy.
Legislators might also simply have a personal interest in foreign policy matters that drives their engagement in the issue.
Finally, they may have ambitions to move into an executive branch position that deals with foreign policy matters, such as secretary of state or defense, CIA director, or even president.
THE MANY ACTORS IN FOREIGN POLICY
The national security advisor heads the president’s National Security Council, a group of senior-level staff from multiple foreign policy agencies and is generally the president’s top foreign policy advisor. Also reporting to the president in the White House is:
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Director of National Intelligence
The Joint Chiefs of Staff consist of six members, one each from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, plus a chair and vice chair. The chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the president’s top uniformed military officer.
The secretary of defense is head of the entire Department of Defense but is a nonmilitary civilian.
The U.S. trade representative develops and directs the country’s international trade agenda.
Finally, within the Executive Office of the President, another important foreign policy official is the director of the president’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB director develops the president’s yearly budget proposal, including funding for the foreign policy agencies and foreign aid.
THE MANY ACTORS IN FOREIGN POLICY
In addition to those who work directly in the White House or Executive Office of the President, several important officials work in the broader executive branch and report to the president in the area of foreign policy.
Secretary of state is the nation’s chief diplomat
Secretary of defense
Secretary of homeland security
THE MANY ACTORS IN FOREIGN POLICY
The final group of official key actors in foreign policy are in the U.S. Congress.
The Speaker of the House
The House minority leader
The Senate majority
The Senate minority leader
Are often given updates on foreign policy matters by the president or the president’s staff.
They are also consulted when the president needs foreign policy support or funding.
However, the experts in Congress who are most often called on for their views are the committee chairs and the highest-ranking minority members of the relevant House and Senate committees.
In the House, that means the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Committee on Armed Services. In the Senate, the relevant committees are the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Armed Services Committee. These committees hold regular hearings on key foreign policy topics, consider budget authorizations, and debate the future of U.S. foreign policy.
CLASSIC APPROACHES
Isolationism—whereby a country stays out of foreign entanglements and keeps to itself—was a popular stance in U.S. foreign policy.
Liberal internationalism advocates a foreign policy approach in which the United States becomes proactively engaged in world affairs. Its adherents assume that liberal democracies must take the lead in creating a peaceful world by cooperating as a community of nations and creating effective world structures such as the United Nations.
MORE RECENT SCHOOLS OF THOUGHTS
Containment was the U.S. foreign policy goal of limiting the spread of communism.
Neoconservatives believe that rather than exercising restraint and always using international organizations as the path to international outcomes, the United States should aggressively use its might to promote its values and ideals around the world. The aggressive use (or threat) of hard power is the core value of neoconservatism.
Neo-isolationism, like earlier isolationism, advocates keeping free of foreign entanglements. Yet no advanced industrial democracy completely separates itself from the rest of the world.
Selective engagement—retaining a strong military presence and remaining engaged across the world through alliances and formal installations—is used to protect the national security interests of the United States. However, this strategy also seeks to avoid being the world’s policeman.
THE END