Chapter 20 Outline
I. INTRODUCTION
A. On September 11, 2001, communism was no longer the principal threat to thesecurity of the United States, and our foreign policy goals suddenly changed toending terrorism.
II. AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: INSTRUMENTS, ACTORS, ANDPOLICYMAKERS
A. Foreign policy involves making choices about relations with the rest of the world.
1. Because the president is the main force behind foreign policy, the White Housereceives a highly confidential intelligence briefing every morning.
2. The instruments of foreign policy are different from those of domestic policy.
a. Foreign policies depend ultimately on three types of tools: military,economic, and diplomatic.
b. Among the oldest instruments of foreign policy are war and the threat ofwar. The United States has often used force to influence actions in othercountries.
c. Today, economic instruments are becoming weapons almost as potent asthose of war.
(1) The control of oil can be as important as the control of guns.
(2) Trade regulations, tariff policies, and monetary policies are among theeconomic instruments of foreign policy.
d. Diplomacy is the quietest instrument of foreign policy.
(1) Sometimes national leaders meet in summit talks.
(2) More often, less prominent negotiators work out treaties handling allkinds of national contracts.
B. Actors on the world stage.
1. International organizations.
a. More than 125 foreign governments have emerged since 1945—nearly twodozen in the 1990s alone.
b. Most of the challenges in international relations require the cooperation ofmany nations; thus, international organizations play an increasinglyimportant role on the world stage.
c. The United Nations (UN), created in 1945, is headed by the secretarygeneral.
(1) Its members agree to renounce war and respect certain human andeconomic freedoms.
(2) The UN General Assembly is composed of about 191 member nations,each with one vote; the Security Council, with five permanentmembers and 10 chosen from session to session, is the seat of realpower; the Secretariat is the executive arm of the UN and directs theadministration of UN programs.
(3) In addition to its peacekeeping function, the UN runs a number ofprograms focused on economic development and health, education, andwelfare concerns.
2. Other international organizations.
a. The International Monetary Fund helps regulate the world of internationalfinance; the World Bank finances development projects in new nations; andthe International Postal Union helps get the mail from one country toanother.
b. Regional organizations are organizations of several nations bound by atreaty, often for military reasons.
(1) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in1949; its members (the United States, Canada, most Western Europeannations, and Turkey) agreed to combine military forces and to treat awar against one as a war against all.
(2) The Warsaw Pact was the regional security community of the SovietUnion and its Eastern European allies; the Warsaw Pact has beendissolved, and the role of NATO is changing dramatically as the coldwar has thawed.
(3) The European Union (EU), is a transnational government of the majorEuropean nations. Today, the EU government coordinates monetary,trade, immigration, labor policies, and much more.
3. Multinational corporations, groups, and individuals.
a. Much of the world’s industrial output comes from multinationalcorporations (MNCs), which are sometimes more powerful (and oftenmuch wealthier) than the governments under which they operate.
b. Groups such as churches and labor unions have long had internationalinterests and activities.
(1) Environmental and wildlife groups, such as Greenpeace, haveproliferated, as have groups interested in protecting human rights, suchas Amnesty International.
(2) Some groups are committed to the overthrow of particular governmentsand operate as terrorists around the world.
c. Individuals are also international actors.
(1) The recent explosion of tourism affects the international economicsystem.
(2) Growing numbers of students are going to and coming from othernations; they are carriers of ideas and ideologies.
(3) Immigrants and refugees place new demands on public services.
C. The policymakers.
1. The president is the main force behind foreign policy: as chief diplomat, thepresident negotiates treaties; as commander in chief, the president deploysAmerican troops abroad.
2. Presidents are aided (and thwarted) by a huge national security bureaucracy;Congress also wields considerable clout in the foreign policy arena.
3. Other foreign policy decision makers.
a. The diplomats.
(1) The secretary of state has traditionally been the key advisor to thepresident on foreign policy matters.
(2) The more than 30,000 people working in the State Department areorganized into functional areas and area specialties.
(3) The top positions in the department and the highly select members ofthe Foreign Service are heavily involved in formulating and executingAmerican foreign policy. (Presidents Nixon and Carter relied more
heavily on their special assistants for national security affairs than ontheir secretaries of state.)
(4) Many recent presidents have bypassed institutional arrangements forforeign policy decision making and have established more personalsystems for receiving policy advice.
4. The national security establishment.
a. The Department of Defense (DOD) was created after World War II whenthe Army, Navy, and Air Force were combined into one department.
b. The commanding officers of each of the services, plus a chair, constitute theJoint Chiefs of Staff; Richard Betts carefully examined the Joint Chiefs’advice to the president in many crises, and found that the Joint Chiefs wereno more likely than civilian advisors to push an aggressive military policy.
c. The secretary of defense manages a budget larger than that of most nationsand is the president’s primary military advisor.
d. American foreign military policies are supposed to be coordinated; theNational Security Council (NSC) was formed in 1947 for this purpose.
(1) Despite the coordinating role assigned to the NSC, conflict within theforeign policy establishment remains common.
(2) The NSC staff has sometimes competed with—rather than integrated—policy advice from cabinet departments; it has also become involved incovert operations.
e. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), known as “The Company,” wascreated after World War II to coordinate American information and data-gatheringintelligence activities abroad and to collect, analyze, and evaluateits own intelligence.
(1) The size of its budget and staff are secret; estimates put them at $5billion and about 20,000 people.
(2) Most of its activities are uncontroversial, as the bulk of the material itcollects and analyzes comes from readily available sources.
(3) The CIA also engages in covert activities.
(a) One way the CIA collects information is by espionage (usuallyagainst foreign adversaries).
(b) The CIA has a long history of involvement in other nations’internal affairs; it has trained and supported armies and hasnurtured coups.
(c) At times, the agency engaged in wiretaps, interception of mail, andthe infiltration of interest groups in the United States; this violatedthe CIA’s charter and damaged the agency’s morale and externalpolitical support.
(d) With the end of the cold war, there is less pressure for covertactivities and a climate more conducive to conventionalintelligence gathering. Currently, Congress requires the CIA toinform relevant congressional committees promptly of current andanticipated covert operations.
(e) Reconciling covert activities with the principle of open democraticgovernment remains a challenge for public officials. The failure topredict the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, increased theintensity of this debate, with many leaders calling for an increasein covert activities.
f. Many other intelligence agencies exist, such as the National ReconnaissanceOffice and the National Security Agency.
(1) In 2004, Congress created the position of the Director of NationalIntelligence, to better coordinate the 100,000 employees of 16 agenciesspending about $44 billion.
(2) In 2005, a debate erupted regarding the NSA’s monitoring of privatecommunications between the U.S. and other countries.
5. Congress.
a. The president shares constitutional authority over foreign and defensepolicy with Congress.
(1) Congress has sole authority to declare war, raise and organize thearmed forces, and appropriate funds for national security activities.
(2) The Senate determines whether treaties will be ratified andambassadorial and cabinet nominations confirmed.
(3) The “power of the purse” and responsibilities for oversight of theexecutive branch give Congress considerable clout, and senators andrepresentatives examine defense budget authorizations carefully.
b. It is a common mistake to believe that the Constitution vests foreign policysolely in the president. Sometimes this erroneous view leads to perverseresults, as with the Iran-Contra affair, when officials at high levels in theexecutive branch lied to Congress and others in an attempt to protect whatthey viewed as the president’s “exclusive” powers.
III. AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: AN OVERVIEW
A. From isolationism to internationalism.
1. The United States followed a foreign policy of isolationism throughout most ofits history.
2. The Monroe Doctrine reaffirmed America’s inattention to Europe’s problems,but warned European nations to stay out of Latin America.
3. In the wake of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson urged the United Statesto join the League of Nations; the Senate refused to ratify the treaty, indicatingthe country was not ready to abandon isolationism.
4. Pearl Harbordealt the death blow to American isolationism.
5. The charter for the United Nations was signed in San Francisco in 1945, withthe United States as an original signatory.
B. At the end of World War II, the United States was the dominant world power, botheconomically and militarily.
1. Only the United States possessed nuclear weapons.
2. The United States poured billions of dollars into war-ravaged European nationsthrough the Marshall Plan.
3. NATO was created in 1949, affirming the mutual military interests of the UnitedStates and Western Europe.
C. All of Eastern Europe fell under Soviet domination as World War II ended.
1. In 1946, Winston Churchill warned that the Russians had sealed off EasternEurope with an “iron curtain.”
2. Writing in Foreign Affairs in 1947 (under the pseudonym “X”), George F.Kennan proposed a policy of “containment.” His containment doctrine calledfor the United States to isolate the Soviet Union and to “contain” its advancesand resist its encroachments.
3. The Truman Doctrine was developed to help other nations (particularlyGreece) oppose communism.
4. The Soviet Union closed off land access to Berlin with the Berlin Blockade(1948–1949); it was countered by a massive airlift of food, fuel, and othernecessities by the United States and its allies.
5. The fall of China to Mao Zedong’s Communist-led forces in 1949 and thedevelopment of Soviet nuclear capability seemed to confirm American fears.
6. The invasion of pro-American South Korea by Communist North Korea in 1950fueled American fears further.
a. President Truman sent American troops to Korea under United Nationsauspices.
b. The Korean War (which lasted until July 23, 1953) was a chance to putcontainment into practice.
7. The 1950s were the height of the cold war.
a. Eisenhower’s secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, proclaimed a policy of“brinkmanship,” in which the United States was to be prepared to usenuclear weapons in order to deter the Soviet Union and Communist Chinafrom taking aggressive action.
b. In the era of McCarthyism (named for Senator Joseph McCarthy, whomade unsubstantiated accusations of disloyalty and breaches of securityagainst both public officials and private citizens), domestic policy was
deeply affected by the cold war and by anticommunist fears.
8. With containment came a massive buildup of the military apparatus, resulting inwhat some people called the military-industrial complex.
a. The phrase was coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to refer to theinterests shared by the armed services and defense contractors.
b. Economist Seymour Melman wrote about Pentagon capitalism, linking themilitary’s drive to expand with the profit motives of private industry.
9. The 1950s ushered in an arms race between the Soviet Union and the UnitedStates; eventually, a point of mutual assured destruction (MAD) was reachedin which each side could destroy the other.
D. The Vietnam War.
1. In 1950, President Truman decided to aid the French effort to retain France’scolonial possessions in Southeast Asia.
2. During the 1950s, the Viet Minh (the Vietnamese communist forces) began toreceive military aid from the new communist government in China.
3. In 1954, the French were defeated by the Viet Minh (led by Ho Chi Minh) in abattle at Dien Bien Phu.
4. Although it was a party to the 1954 agreements among participants in Geneva,Switzerland, the United States never accepted the Geneva agreement to holdnational elections in Vietnam in 1956; instead, it began supporting one noncommunistleader after another in South Vietnam.
5. Vietnam first became an election-year issue in 1964.
a. Since Truman’s time, the United States had sent military “advisors” toSouth Vietnam, which was in the midst of a civil war spurred by the VietCong (National Liberation Front).
b. Senator Barry Goldwater was a foreign policy hard-liner who advocatedtough action in Vietnam; President Lyndon Johnson promised that he wouldnot “send American boys to do an Asian boy’s job” of defending the pro-American regime in South Vietnam.
6. Despite his election-year promise, Johnson sent in American troops when wewere unable to contain the forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam withAmerican advisors.
a. American troops (more than 500,000 at the peak of the undeclared war) andmassive firepower failed to contain the North Vietnamese.
b. At home, widespread protests against the war contributed to Johnson’sdecision not to run for reelection in 1968 and to begin peace negotiations.
7. The new Nixon administration prosecuted the war vigorously (in Cambodia aswell as in Vietnam), but also worked to negotiate a peace treaty with the VietCong and North Vietnam.
a. A peace treaty was signed in 1973, but no one expected it to hold.
b. South Vietnam’s capital, Saigon, fell to the North Vietnamese army in1975.
c. South and North Vietnam were reunited into a single nation, and Saigonwas renamed Ho Chi Minh City.
E. The era of détente.
1. Even while the Vietnam War was being waged, Richard Nixon supported a newpolicy of détente.
a. Popularized by Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s national security assistant (andlater secretary of state), détente sought a relaxation of tensions between thesuperpowers, coupled with firm guarantees of mutual security.
b. Foreign policy battles were to be waged with diplomatic, economic, andpropaganda weapons; the threat of force was downplayed.
2. One major initiative coming out of détente was the Strategic Arms LimitationTalks (SALT).
a. These talks represented an effort by the United States and the Soviet Unionto agree to scale down their nuclear capabilities, with each powermaintaining sufficient nuclear weapons to deter a surprise attack by the
other.
b. President Nixon signed the first SALT treaty in 1972.
c. A second SALT treaty (SALT II) was signed and sent to the Senate byPresident Carter in 1979, but the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that yearcaused Carter to withdraw the treaty from Senate consideration; both he andPresident Reagan nevertheless insisted that they would be committed to itsarms limitations.
3. The philosophy of détente was applied to the People’s Republic of China as wellas to the Soviet Union.
a. President Nixon visited the People’s Republic and sent an American missionthere.
b. President Carter extended formal diplomatic recognition in November 1978.
F. The Reagan rearmament.
1. From the mid-1950s to 1981, the defense budget had generally been declining asa percentage of both the total federal budget and the gross national product (withthe exception of the Vietnam War).
a. Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire”; heviewed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 as typical Russianaggression.
b. During his presidential campaign, Reagan said America faced a “window ofvulnerability” because the Soviet Union was pulling ahead of the UnitedStates in military spending.
2. President Carter’s last budget had proposed a large increase in defense spending,and the Reagan administration proposed adding $32 billion on top of that. In thesecond Reagan term, concern over huge budget deficits brought defensespending to a standstill.
3. In 1983, President Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)—renamed “Star Wars” by critics—to create a global “umbrella” of protection inspace.
G. The final thaw in the cold war.
1. The cold war ended spontaneously—a situation that few could have predicted.
a. On May 12, 1989, President Bush announced a new era in American foreignpolicy, one that he termed “beyond containment.” Bush declared that it wastime to seek the integration of the Soviet Union into the community ofnations.
b. Forces of change sparked by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev led to astaggering wave of upheavals that shattered communist regimes and thepostwar barriers between Eastern and Western Europe.
c. The Berlin Wall (the most prominent symbol of oppression in EasternEurope) was brought down, and East and West Germany formed a unified,democratic republic.
d. The former Soviet Union split into 15 separate countries; non-communistgovernments formed in most of them.
2. In 1989, reform seemed on the verge of occurring in China as well as in EasternEurope.
a. Thousands of students held protests on behalf of democratization inTiananmen Square (the central meeting place in Beijing).
b. However, on the night of June 3, the Chinese army violently crushed thedemocracy movement, killing hundreds—perhaps thousands—of protestersand beginning a wave of executions, arrests, and repression.
H. The War on Terrorism.
1. Perhaps the most troublesome issue in the national security area is the spread ofterrorism, the use of violence to demoralize and frighten a country’s populationor government.
2. President Bush declared a “war on terrorism” following the September 11, 2001,attacks on New York and Washington.
3. The threat posed by groups and the hostile states supporting them has forcedAmerica to reconsider basic tenets of its national security policy.
4. The national security strategy doctrine issued by the Bush administration inSeptember 2002 is the most dramatic and far-reaching change in nationalsecurity policy in half a century. It substitutes preemption of potential threats ordeterrence and containment of aggression by hostile nations or groups thatappear determined to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States.