SB Chapter 14
Foreign Policy
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After students have read and studied this chapter they should be able to:
· Define foreign policy, defense policy, and diplomacy.
· Describe the two competing perspectives of viewing foreign policy (moral idealism and political realism).
· Describe the impact of issues such as nuclear proliferation and terrorism on foreign policy.
· Describe the current situation in Iraq, with especial attention to the attitudes of the three main ethnic groups.
· Summarize several current foreign policy concerns, including:
o On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the internationally proposed solution, the position of the Israelis, and the position of the Palestinians.
o The growing economic power of China and the concerns this provokes, especially relating to Taiwan.
o The problem of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program.
· Describe the formal and informal powers of the president to make foreign policy.
o Commander-in-chief.
o Treaty power.
o Executive agreements
o Access to information.
o Legislative leader.
o Shaper of public opinion.
· Identify the principal agencies that assist the president in developing foreign policy.
o The State Department.
o The National Security Council.
o The intelligence community.
o The Department of Defense.
· Trace the stages of United States foreign policy development including early foreign policy, the Monroe Doctrine and isolationism, internationalism, the Cold War, containment, détente, and Bush’s doctrine of preemption.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Facing the World: Foreign and Defense Policy
Foreign policy includes the techniques and strategies used to achieve external goals, as well as the goals themselves. Some of the techniques used in carrying out foreign policy include: diplomacy—the total process by which states carry on political relations, economic aid—assistance to other nations in the form of grants, loans, or credits to purchase goods, and technical assistance—sending experts with technical skills in agriculture, engineering, or business to aid other nations
A. National Security Policy.
A major goal of foreign policy is national security, that is, the protection of the independence and political and economic integrity of the United States. Defense policy is a subset of national security policy that includes the directing of the scale and size of the American armed forces. Defense policy considers the types of armed forces we need, how many wars we need to be prepared to fight simultaneously, and the type of weaponry that will be required.
B. Diplomacy.
Diplomacy is the total process by which states carry on political relations with each other. It is the process of settling conflicts by peaceful means. Diplomacy may or may not be successful. For example, at times the attempt to negotiate a settlement between Israel and its Arab neighbors—including the Palestinians—has made apparent progress. At other times, negotiations have come to a stop.
II. Morality Versus Reality in Foreign Policy
The development of foreign policy begins with the view a country and its leaders have of the world and how it operates.
A. Moral Idealism.
This view of the world sees nations as normally willing to cooperate and agree on moral standards. This view leads to support for international organizations such as the League of Nations proposed by President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) and the United Nations. It also supports such efforts as the Peace Corps.
B. Political Realism.
This competing model of foreign policy sees each nation acting to maximize its own interest regardless of moral principles. This principle supports a strong military and a willingness to make deals with dictators.
C. American Foreign Policy—A Mixture of Both.
Every president has based his foreign policy on both of these principles, though some have tended to stress one or the other of the two. For example, George W. Bush’s belief that a democratic Iraq could make the Middle East a less threatening place is an example of moral idealism. The administration’s willingness to support Pakistan, despite the fact that it is a dictatorship and has recently developed nuclear weapons, is an example of political realism. Pakistan’s location is strategic for fighting in Afghanistan.
III. Challenges in World Politics
A. The Emergence of Terrorism.
1. Terrorism and Regional Strife. Terrorism has a long history that dates back well before its recent adoption as a tactic of choice by Islamist radicals. It has been employed in the past by nationalist movements of varying kinds (Ireland, the Basques) and continues to be so used today. Examples include the terrorism used by Palestinian nationalists and by the Chechen rebels in Russia, both of which have led to a large number of truly horrific incidents.
2. Terrorist Attacks against Foreign Civilians. Terrorists have been known to take their fight out of their own region, sometimes committing acts of terror in third-party settings. An example is the attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
3. September 11. The Al Qaeda group, led by Osama bin Laden, appears to have been motivated by the stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia following the First Gulf War with Iraq, and also by a desire to mobilize masses of ordinary Muslims into a movement that would over throw existing governments in Islamic nations and create radical regimes (or even a worldwide Islamic “Caliphate”) that would confront the West.
B. The War on Terrorism. Terrorist violence has fostered increased security measures as nations attempt to balance a desire to protect citizens from terrorists with the citizens’ rights to privacy.
1. Military Responses. In the aftermath of the attacks on the United States, the current Bush administration launched a war on terrorism. One primary goal of that war was to oust the Taliban government from power in Afghanistan. The Taliban were closely aligned with Al Qaeda. The United States, along with a coalition of allies and anti-Taliban rebels within Afghanistan, succeeded in ousting the Taliban and supported the creation of a new regime. The Bush administration also considered Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to be a threat. After failing to get desired support from the U.N. Security Council, the Bush administration, with participation by Britain and others, launched an invasion of Iraq that quickly overthrew the Hussein regime.
2. A New Kind of War. Bush has enunciated a new doctrine of “preemptive war” to deal with terrorism. War could be anticipatory of threats and waged, if necessary, without allies. Critics have said that such a policy is reminiscent of the actions of dictators.
C. Wars In Iraq.
Saddam Hussein’s annexation of Kuwait in August 1990 was the most clear-cut case of aggression against an independent nation since World War II.
1. The Persian Gulf—The First Gulf War. The United States set up a defensive line in Saudi Arabia at the request of that nation. After half a year to prepare, and after obtaining a U.N. resolution authorizing force, the U.S.-led coalition initiated a month-long bombing campaign against Iraq followed by an invasion. Kuwait was freed but the coalition forces did not go on to conquer Baghdad, and as a result Hussein’s regime survived. U.N. weapons inspectors sought to find and eliminate any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but in 1999, Iraq placed such obstacles in the path of the inspectors that they withdrew from the country.
2. The Persian Gulf—The Second Gulf War. Bush had called Iraq, Iran, and North Korea part of an “axis of evil” in the world. The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was conducted with a relatively small force of about a quarter of a million troops, instead of the half-a-million used in the First Gulf War. The Iraqi army collapsed quickly and in effect disbanded itself—soldiers took off their uniforms and went home. While the smaller force was sufficient to defeat the Iraqi army, it proved too small to maintain order in Iraq during the occupation.
3. Occupied Iraq. Iraq is made up of t here main ethno-religious groups: the Shiite Arabs (about 60 percent) the Sunni Arabs (about 20 percent) and the Kurds (about 17 percent). The Kurds had been functioning as an American-sponsored independent state since the First Gulf War and were overjoyed by the invasion. The Shiites were glad that Hussein, who had murdered many of them, was gone. They were deeply skeptical of the occupation, however. The Sunnis had controlled the government under Hussein and many considered the occupation a disaster. The Coalition Provisional Authority turned Iraqi sovereignty over to an interim government on June 30, 2004. Elections were scheduled for January 2005
4. The Security Problem in Iraq. Through late 2003 and 2004, a serious insurgency grew in Iraq, manifested in attacks on coalition forces and the new Iraqi police force.
5. Uprisings in Spring 2004. In April, there were simultaneous uprisings in the Sunni Triangle west of Baghdad and by Shiite supporters of Mutada al-Sadr, a radical cleric. The result of the uprisings was to leave several Sunni cities effectively under the control of anti-coalition militias. After a second uprising later in 2004, however, al-Sadr’s supporters began negotiating to join the political process. Immediately after the U.S. election, the U.S. mounted a major attack on Fallujah, a rebel-held Sunni city
D. Nuclear Weapons.
America gained nuclear weapons in 1945, the Soviet Union in 1949, Britain in 1952, France in 1960, and China in 1964. These powers remained the only ones with open nuclear weapons programs until 1998, when Pakistan and India tested nuclear weapons.
1. The United States and the Soviet Union. During the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union developed large stockpiles of nuclear weapons that they aimed at each other. Both have since reduced their holdings, but both continue to possess very large quantities of such arms.
2. Nuclear Proliferation. This is an important U.S. foreign policy concern caused in part by the fear that terrorists will gain control of nuclear weapons. Also, an increased number of nations with these weapons raises the possibility that there might someday be a nuclear war. The issue of nuclear proliferation proved important in 1998 when India and Pakistan each detonated nuclear test bombs. These tests came despite the protests of the international community. Israel is believed to have a hundred or more nuclear bombs, and North Korea has threatened to develop a nuclear capacity. In the 1980s South Africa secretly developed a nuclear capability but destroyed its bombs in the 1990s. Libya has recently renounced a nuclear development program.
E. The New Power: China.
American policy has been to engage the Chinese in diplomatic and economic relationships in the hope of turning the nation in a more pro-Western direction.
1. Chinese-American Trade Ties. During the Clinton administration, China was granted normal trade relations status on a year-to-year basis. In 2000 the status was made permanent. In 2001, Congress endorsed China’s application to join the World Trade Organization.
2. Chinese-American Tensions. Some American commentators have been unnerved by China’s booming economy, and have seen China as a potential future threat. Current disputes have included espionage issues, such as the U.S. belief that China has agents in the United States and Chinese objections to American spy planes. China has supported the United States in the war on terror, however, though it opposed the war in Iraq.
F. Regional Conflicts.
1. Israel and the Palestinians. Wording about this conflict must be very careful. We cannot improve on the text: “The internationally recognized solution is for Israel to yield the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians in return for effective security commitments and abandonment by the Palestinians of any right of return to Israel proper. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have been unwilling to stop terrorist attacks on Israel, and Israel has been unwilling to dismantle its settlements in the occupied territories. Further, the two parties have been unable to come to an agreement on how much of the West Bank should go to the Palestinians and on what compensation (if any) the Palestinians should receive for abandoning all claims to settlement in Israel proper.
2. The Collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. In 1993, the Israelis and Palestinians agreed to the setting up of a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza. Talks broke down in 2002, however, and a campaign of terror by Palestinian radicals led the Israelis to send its army into the occupied territories, which in turn led to the virtual collapse of the Palestinian Authority. Negotiations are at a standstill, and in 2004 Israeli leader Ariel Sharon announced a plan to leave the Gaza Strip whether the Palestinians cooperated or not.
3. AIDS in Southern Africa. AIDS now infects up to a quarter of the adults in several countries in the southernmost part of Africa. The Bush administration announced as special foreign aid program directed at the problem.
4. African Civil Wars. The world in general and America in particular have attempted to avoid involvement in African civil wars, despite the terrific loss of life involved. These conflicts included a genocidal massacre of the Tutsi tribe in Rwanda in 1994, and a 1996-2002 civil war in Zaire (now Congo-Kinshasa) that killed millions. Civil wars in Angola and southern Sudan may now be over, but refugees from suppression of a rebellion in the western Sudanese province of Darfur are now threatened with starvation.
IV. Who Makes Foreign Policy?
A. Constitutional Powers of the President
1. War Powers. As commander in chief of the armed forces, the president has very extensive powers.
2. Treaties and Executive Agreements. The president has the authority to make treaties, though they require the two-thirds approval of the Senate. The president also makes executive agreements with leaders of other countries. There may be as many as 8,000 of these agreements, many of them secret.
3. Other Constitutional Powers. The president appoints ambassadors and decides whether to recognize other governments as legitimate.
B. Informal Techniques of Presidential Leadership.
In addition to the constitutional powers, the president also has informal techniques with which he can develop foreign policy. These techniques include the access to information from within the executive branch. As legislative leader, the president can influence the budgetary constraints in all areas of appropriations. This includes economic aid, military aid, and humanitarian aid. The president can use the “bully pulpit” to build public support for his programs. The president can commit the nation to courses of action from which it would be very difficult to back down even if Congress wished to.