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CHAPTER 20
Global Policy
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to do the following:
1.
Define the key terms at the end of the chapter
2.
Discuss the roles and powers of the president and Congress in foreign policymaking
3.
Identify other players in the American foreign policymaking establishment and discuss their
powers
4.
Explain the broad contours of U.S. foreign policy history in the twentieth century
5.
Explore in greater detail the history of the Cold War, containment, and the impact of Vietnam on
American foreign policy
6.
Suggest the impact that the end of the Cold War had on U.S. foreign policymaking, and the new
challenges facing U.S. foreign policymaking since 9/11
7.
Explain the difference between foreign and global policy
8.
Discuss major global policy topics
9.
Use the majoritarian and pluralist models to assess the role of public opinion in shaping American
foreign policy
CHAPTER SYNOPSIS
This chapter examines the players, structures, and primary issues that define the making of foreign
policy in the United States. The decisions made in this process can be understood through the conflicts
of freedom versus order and freedom versus equality: in the case of foreign policy, though, those
conflicts are between those who favor freedom versus those who favor maintaining the traditional order
of the nation-state system; and those who favor freedom versus those who favor government action to
enhance the equality of people in all nations. The history of U.S. foreign policy and current global
policy challenges can be understood within this framework.
The Constitution specifies that relations with other nations should primarily be the responsibility of two
groups of actors: the executive branch and the legislative branch. The president, who has become the
primary foreign policy authority, derives his authority from a few provisionsincluding his role as
commander-in-chiefthat deal with the subject of foreign relations. Presidents have used these
provisions, pieces of legislation, Supreme Court decisions, and precedent to expand their authority.
The other primary actor in the foreign policymaking arena is Congress. Congress has many powers that
can be used in foreign policy, though the Constitution never specifically mentions that term. Both the
power to legislate and the power of the purse give Congress the ability to promote or prohibit
international involvement. The Senate has specific powersincluding the power to ratify treatiesthat
make it a particularly important force in foreign policymaking.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
There are many other actors who take part in making foreign policy: particularly important are the
Department of State, the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the CIA, and other
parts of the bureaucracy that have intelligence capabilities. Each of these organizations advises the
president and Congress on matters concerning national security and other U.S. interests. In addition,
many other agencies pursue foreign policy goals as part of their missions, and there is an array of
government corporations, independent agencies, and quasi-governmental organizations that also
participate in making foreign policy.
A brief review of the history of foreign policymaking reveals that the United States has gradually
progressed from an isolationist to a regional to a global perspective in its foreign policy. Immediately
after World War II, American foreign policy was dominated by the requirements of the Cold War and
the containment of Soviet expansionism. A real turning point in Cold War foreign policy resulted from
America’s unsuccessful involvement in the Vietnam War. Americans disagreed passionately both about
what to do in Vietnam and how to do it. The Nixon doctrine, however, inspired a dramatic departure
from the past by advocating détente, a foreign policy aimed at reducing tensions between East and
West. This policy represented a significant change. President Carter’s foreign policy emphasized
human rights, and can be seen as reflecting the “Vietnam syndrome,” a crisis of confidence about
America’s role in the world. President Reagan had no such crisis, and undertook a major defense
buildup as a means of rolling back perceived Soviet expansionism in Central America and elsewhere.
When the Cold War ended in 1989, the conditions of foreign policymaking changed dramatically. As
President Clinton’s policy of enlargement and engagement illustrates, it is now much more difficult to
develop strong guidelines about U.S. involvement in situations around the world. These challenges
were exacerbated by the events of September 11, 2001: now the idea of preemptive action challenges
U.S. intelligence to keep our homeland safe while simultaneously engaging when the threat is not
visible to everyone.
The most pressing international issues are global policy issues: these are intermestic problems that
require global action. Solutions to these problems often require domestic policies and practices to be
subjected to international regulation. Global policymaking presents challenges to the very concept of
national sovereignty. A review of the global policy areas of investment and trade, human rights policy
and foreign aid, and environmental policy reveals both the need for, and the challenges to, effective
policymaking in these areas.
In a democracy, it would seem that public opinion could have a dramatic impact on foreign policy
decisions. According to the majoritarian model of democracy, public opinion should be the fundamental
guide for foreign policy makers. The problem with this view is that the public is not very interested in
foreign policy, and most of those who are have views that are not very specific. The pluralist model of
democracy, by contrast, recognizes that people are likely to learn about foreign policy from the leaders
of groups they belong to, and so legitimizes the presence of these groups. Pluralism also recognizes and
allows for the presence of foreign firms and governments as interest groups. Though the influence of
these groups varies depending on the issue at hand, international lobbying efforts are most effective
when they deal with noncrisis issues that are of little importance to the public at large. Given the
public’s relative disinterest in these matters, foreign policyand now global policywill tend to be
made by opinion leaders and competing interest groups.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
239
PARALLEL LECTURE 20.1
The Drama of Global Policy, Part 1: The Players and the Rules
This lecture closely follows the discussion in the chapter, though it provides a framework for you to
help your students think about foreign policy as an ongoing story with many players. This lecture
introduces the major players and the supporting cast, and explains who interacts with whom, and what
the boundaries of those interactions are (and why those boundaries exist). The remaining topics are
covered in Parallel Lecture 20.2.
I.
Making foreign policy: the leading players and the rules
A. Foreign policy: the general plan followed by a nation in defending and advancing national
interests, especially its security against foreign threats.
B. The protagonist: the president (the constitutional bases of presidential authority in foreign
policy)
1. The Constitution allows the president to deal with other nations in several ways:
a) The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
b) The president has the power to make treaties.
c) The president appoints U.S. ambassadors and the heads of executive departments.
d) The president receives (or refuses) ambassadors from other countries.
2. Over time, the executive has used these provisions, laws, Supreme Court decisions,
and precedents created by bold action to emerge as the leading actor in American
foreign policy.
C. The protagonist II (and sometimes the antagonist): Congress (constitutional bases of
congressional authority in foreign policy)
1. The Constitution mentions the word “foreign” in five places, and all of these are in
Article I (which defines the legislative branch).
2. The Constitution allows Congress to deal with other nations in several ways.
a) Congress has the power to create legislation.
b) Congress has the power to declare war.
c) Congress has the power to raise revenues and dispense funds.
d) Congress has the power to support, maintain, govern, and regulate the army.
e) Congress has the power to call out state militias to repel invasions.
f)
Congress has the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations.
g) Congress has the power to define and punish piracy and offenses against the law
of nations.
3. Congress has only used its power to declare war five times.
4. Most importantly, Congress uses its power of the purse to provide funds for foreign
policy activities it supports, and to prohibit funds for those it opposes.
5. The Senate has specific powers that make it the leading chamber on foreign policy
issues.
a) The Senate must give advice and consent to treaties.
b) The Senate must give advice and consent to the appointment of ambassadors and
other officials involved in foreign policy.
6. The Senate rarely defeats a treaty the president has made (only twenty-one of
thousands considered have been defeated), but many of those defeats have been
historically significant.
a) The Senate vetoed Woodrow Wilson’s treaty to join the League of Nations in
1921.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
b)
II.
U.S. entrance into the United Nations required Senate approval; despite some
isolationist sentiment, the treaty passed.
c) The most recent treaty rejection occurred in 1999, when the Senate rejected the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
D. The power move: presidents can avoid Senate treaty rejection by creating foreign policy
through executive agreements.
1. Executive agreement: a pact between the heads of two countries.
a) Executive agreements are within the inherent powers of the president and have
the legal status of treaties.
b) They must conform to the Constitution, existing treaties, and the laws of
Congress.
2. Most executive agreements deal with minor issues.
3. Presidents have occasionally resorted to executive agreements on issues that were
unlikely to win Senate consent: NAFTA is a recent example.
E. The dance of power: legislation and foreign policymaking power (constitutional roots of
statutory powers in foreign policy)
1. Congress has allowed the presidency certain leeway on use of discretionary
fundslarge sums of money that may be spent on unforeseen needs to further the
national interest.
2. Congress has also granted the president transfer authorityallowing him to take
money that Congress has approved for one purpose and spend it on something else.
3. As commander-in-chief, the president has authority to commit the armed forces to
respond to emergency situations, effectively involving the United States in undeclared
wars.
a) The War Powers Resolution (passed in 1973, in response to the Vietnam War)
requires the president to consult with Congress in “every possible instance”
before involving troops in hostilities.
b) Troops may not stay for more than sixty days without congressional approval.
c) The actual impact of the law is probably quite minimal; no president has ever
been “punished” for violating its provisions.
4. President G.W. Bush had to work within the War Powers Resolution after the 9/11
attacks.
a) Congress voted on September 14, 2001 to authorize the president to “use all
necessary and appropriate force against [those] who committed or aided the
terrorist attacks.”
b) Bush relied on the resolution to attack Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and defeat the
Taliban regime.
c) Congress was not as quick to support the use of military force against Saddam
Hussein in 2002.
5. The Senate has sought to expand its role.
a) Senators have used confirmation hearings to prod the administration for more
acceptable appointments.
b) Senate dragged on John Bolton’s appointment as U.N. Ambassador until
Congress recessed
c) Bush sidestepped Senate by installing Bolton under a “recess appointment” to
expire when new Congress convenes in January 2007
Making foreign policy: supporting players
A. The Department of State
1. The State Department helps formulate American policy and then executes and
monitors it throughout the world.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
2.
B.
C.
D.
241
The secretary of state (the head of the State Department) is the highest-ranking official
in the cabinet, and also (usually) the president’s most important foreign policy advisor.
3. Despite its size and selectivity in hiring, the State Department is often charged with
lacking initiative and creativity.
4. The State Department lacks a strong domestic constituency to exert pressure in support
of its policies; pluralist politics makes this a serious drawback.
The Department of Defense
1. The Department of Defense is charged with promoting unity and coordination among
the armed forces and providing the bureaucratic structure needed to manage the
peacetime military.
2. The secretary of defense is a civilian, and has budgetary power; control of defense
research; and the authority to transfer, abolish, reassign, and consolidate functions
among the military services.
3. The power wielded by the secretary of defense depends upon the secretary’s own
vision and willingness to use the tools available.
4. Below the secretary are the civilian secretaries of the army, navy, and air force.
5. Below the civilian secretaries are the military commanders of the individual branches
of the armed forces: the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
a) Joint Chiefs meet to coordinate military policy among the different branches
b) Joint Chiefs serve as primary military advisers to the president, the secretary of
defense, and the National Security Council.
The National Security Council
1. The National Security Council (NSC) is a group of advisors created to help the
president mold a coherent approach to foreign policymaking by integrating and
coordinating details of domestic, foreign, and military affairs.
2. The statutory members of the NSC include the president, vice president, and
secretaries of state and defense.
3. The role of the NSC varies considerably according to the wishes of the president.
The intelligence community
1. Intelligence Community: sixteen agencies in the executive branch that conduct various
intelligence activities that make up the total U.S. national intelligence effort.
2. Many attributed the 9/11 attack to failure of intelligence.
a) Congress created an independent commission to investigate the charge (The 9/11
Commission).
b) Commission proposed sweeping reorganization of intelligence agencies and
responsibilities
3. Director of National Intelligence
a) Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 created an Office of
the Director of National Intelligence to coordinate all intelligence activities
b) Stripped the title of Director of Central Intelligence from the head of the CIA
c) DNI became principal advisor to the president and the National Security Council
d) Oversees and directs the National Intelligence Program
4. The Central Intelligence Agency
a) The CIA was created during the Cold War to collect information and draw on
intelligence activities in other departments and agencies.
b) Intelligence Directorate is responsible for collecting and processing overt
information
c) Operations Directorate undertakes covert activities, including espionage, coups,
assassination plots, wiretaps, interception of mail, and infiltration of protest
groups
d) Covert operations raise more—and legal—questions for a democracy.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
e) Some accused the CIA’s neglecting of covert operations as a cause for 9/11.
The National Security Agency
a) Conducts signals intelligence using supercomputers, satellites, and other high
tech equipment
b) Work is highly secret
c) Has more employees and a much larger budget than the CIA
d) Located in the Defense Department; has always been headed by high-ranking
military officers
6. The intelligence community is less communal than feudal: agencies jealously guard
their turf.
E. Bit players: other parts of the foreign policy bureaucracy
1. Globalization has caused the number of players concerned with foreign policy to
expand.
2. The Agency for International Development (AID) oversees aid programs to nations
around the globe, working with a full range of other departments and agencies.
3. Many other departments, including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and
Energy, engage in various foreign policy activities.
4. An array of government corporations, independent agencies, and quasi-governmental
organizations also participate in foreign policymaking.
a) The National Endowment for Democracy
b) The Export-Import Bank
c) The Overseas Private Investment Corporation
5. States and localities are now also paying attention to foreign policy; most state
governments now have offices charged with promoting export of state goods and
attracting overseas investment.
III. These are the players and what they can do: now on to the stories they have created.
5.
PARALLEL LECTURE 20.2
The Drama of Global Policy, Part 2: The Stories
This lecture substantially follows the discussion in the chapter, though it provides a framework for you
to help your students think about foreign policy as an ongoing story with many players. This lecture
follows the lecture that introduces the major players, the supporting cast, and their interactions, and
delves into the specifics of their interactions during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the
challenges they will face in the twenty-first century.
I.
The story to this point: a review of U.S. foreign policy
A. Every president comes to office with an ideological orientation for interpreting and
evaluating events.
1. These orientations can be thought of in terms of the basic conflicts of freedom versus
order and freedom versus equality. (See text Figure 20.1.)
a) International liberals favor government action for equality of people in all nations
over freedom, and favor freedom over the traditional order of the nation-state
system.
b) International conservatives favor freedom over government action for equality of
people in all nations, and favor the traditional order of the nation-state system
over freedom.
c) International libertarians favor freedom over government action for equality of
people in all nations, and favor freedom over the traditional order of the nationstate system.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
d)
B.
C.
243
International communitarians favor government action for equality of people in
all nations over freedom, and favor the traditional order of the nation-state system
over freedom.
2. Presidents are often at ideological odds with members of Congress.
3. The story of foreign policymaking in the United States reflects theseand
othertensions.
Emerging from isolationism
1. For most of the nineteenth century, the limits of American interests were defined by
the Monroe Doctrine.
a) Monroe Doctrine: the United States rejected European interference and agreed
not to involve itself in European politics.
b) Isolationism: a foreign policy of withdrawal from international political affairs.
2. World War I was the first challenge to isolationism.
a) The slogan that surrounded our entry into World War I“to make the world safe
for democracy”gave an idealistic tone to America’s efforts to advance its own
interests.
b) When the Senate failed to ratify the treaty needed for entry into the League of
Nations, America’s brief moment of internationalism ended, and its security
interests continued to be narrowly defined.
3. World War II changed America’s orientation.
a) The United States emerged from the war as a superpower, with national security
interests around the world.
b) After the war, the nation was forced to confront a new rival: its former ally, the
Soviet Union.
Cold War and containment
1. The Cold War: a prolonged period of adversarial relations between the two
superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.
a) Lasted from the late 1940s to the late 1980s
b) Many crises and confrontations brought the superpowers to the brink of war.
c) Avoided direct military conflict with each other
2. The Cold War was waged based on the policy of containment: the basic U.S. policy
toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War, according to which the Soviets were to
be contained within existing boundaries by military, diplomatic, and economic means,
in the expectation that the Soviet system would decay and disintegrate.
a) Militarily, the Cold War committed the United States to high defense
expenditures, including maintaining a large military presence around the world.
b) Economically, the Cold War required the United States to back the establishment
of an international economic system that relied on free trade, fixed currency
exchange rates, and America’s ability to act as banker for the world.
c) Politically, the United States forged numerous alliances against the Soviet Union.
(1) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): an organization
including nations of Western Europe, the United States, and Canada,
created in 1949 to defend against Soviet expansionism.
(2) The United States also tried to use international institutions (such as the
U.N.) as instruments of containment.
3. The early years of the Cold War were characterized by reliance on nuclear weapons
through a policy of nuclear deterrence.
4. By the late 1960s, both nations had nuclear technology that would allow them to
totally destroy each other; this resulted in the policy of mutually assured destruction
(MAD).
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
5.
D.
E.
The end of the colonial era also had an impact on the Cold War.
a) The Soviets offered to help forces involved in wars to end colonialism (wars of
national liberation).
b) The United States developed policies aimed at nation building: a policy once
thought to shore up Third World countries economically and democratically,
thereby making them less attractive targets for Soviet opportunism.
Vietnam and the challenge to the Cold War consensus
1. The Cold War turned hot in Vietnam by the mid-1960s: Soviet support for a war of
national liberation came into conflict with American nation building.
2. The Vietnam War damaged the Cold War consensus on the value of containment.
a) Some critics complained that the government lacked the will to use enough
military force to win the war.
b) Others argued that the United States was relying on force to solve political
problems.
c) Still others objected that the United States was intervening in a civil war.
3. The United States signed a peace agreement and pulled its forces out of Vietnam, and
in 1975, the country was unified under a Communist regime.
4. Even during the war, President Nixon began to shift U.S. foreign policy toward the
Nixon Doctrine: Nixon’s policy, formulated with Henry Kissinger, that restricted U.S.
military intervention abroad absent a threat to its vital national interest.
5. Nixon was also responsible for the policy of détente: a reduction of tensions;
particularly used to refer to a reduction of tensions between the United States and the
Soviet Union in the early 1970s during the Nixon administration.
a) This policy led to the conclusion of a major arms agreement, the Strategic Arms
Limitation Treaty (SALT I).
b) There was also greater cooperation between the United States and Russia in other
spheres, such as space exploration.
6. Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy reflected the influence of the “Vietnam syndrome,” a
crisis of confidence that resulted from America’s failure in Vietnam and the
breakdown of Cold War consensus about America’s role in the world.
a) Carter tended to downplay the importance of the Soviet threat, seeing revolutions
in Nicaragua and Iran as products of internal forces rather than of Soviet
involvement.
b) Carter’s administration also de-emphasized the use of military force, but could
not offer an effective alternative when Iranians took American diplomats hostage,
or when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
The end of the Cold War
1. Ronald Reagan was untroubled by the Vietnam syndrome.
2. Pursued the policy of peace through strength: Reagan’s policy of combating
communism by building up the military, including aggressive development of new
weapons systems
a) Increased defense spending was focused on major new weapons (such as the
Strategic Defensive Initiative, also known as “Star Wars”).
b) During this period, the Cold War climate became even chillier.
3. When Mikhail Gorbachev came into power in the Soviet Union (1985), things changed
substantially. Gorbachev wished to reduce the USSR’s commitments abroad and
concentrate its resources on domestic reforms.
4. By 1988, the United States and the USSR had concluded agreements outlawing
intermediate-range nuclear forces (the INF treaty) and providing for the Soviet
withdrawal from Afghanistan.
5. In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down, symbolizing the end of the Cold War.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
Who won? Some believe that Communism collapsed because of Reagan’s
policies.
b) Who won? Some believe that the combined appeal of western affluence,
Gorbachev’s policies, and the desire to overcome the nuclear threat led to the end
of the Cold War.
c) Who won? Some argue that both powers lost by spending trillions of dollars on
defense and ignoring needs in other sectors of the economy.
A new story: foreign policy without the Cold War
1. George Bush faced a classic national security challenge when Iraq invaded Kuwait in
1990: not only had a friend been attacked, but the U.S. oil supply had been put in
jeopardy.
a) Bush emphasized multilateral action and the use of international organizations
like the U.N. to counter the threat.
b) The two superpowers (the United States and Russia) were able to cooperate in the
U.N. Security Council against Saddam Hussein.
c) The threat galvanized Americans in support of Bush’s military action to repel the
invasion.
2. Bill Clinton did not have such a visible threat to vital U.S. interests, and struggled
through his presidency to provide clear, coherent foreign policy leadership.
a) The Clinton administration pursued the policy of enlargement and engagement.
(1) Enlargement: increasing the spread of market economies and adding to the
membership of NATO.
(2) Engagement: rejecting isolationism and striving to achieve greater
flexibility in a chaotic global era.
b) Critics worried that the policy did not provide adequate guidelines about when,
where, and why the United States should be engaged.
c) Clinton had foreign policy successes in brokering peace in Northern Ireland and
in working to broker a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The hot war on terrorism
1. The attack on September 11, 2001, transformed George W. Bush’s presidency.
2. Bush announced his plan to eliminate the threat to order posed by international
terrorism, and implied that the sovereignty of other nations would not limit the United
States from eliminating terrorism.
3. Bush made foreign policy the center of his administration.
4. He presided brilliantly over the campaign against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, heading a
truly international coalition.
5. After succeeding in Afghanistan, Bush invaded Iraq, explicitly dropping the doctrine of
containment and invoking preemptive action: the policy of acting against a nation or
group that poses a severe threat to the United States before waiting for the threat to
occur; sometimes called the “Bush Doctrine.”
6. War in Iraq dragged on for three years with very little success, apart from toppling
Saddam Hussein.
Moving the story forward: from foreign policy to global policy
1. Global policy: like foreign policy, a general plan to defend and advance national
interests, but global policy embraces a broader view of national interests.
2. Global policy confronts the silent, cumulative effects of billions of individual choices
made by people everywhere on the globe.
3. Global policy requires global action; the players are international organizations that
cooperate on a worldwide scale.
a)
F.
G.
H.
245
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
4.
II.
U.S. leadership is less evidentand less acceptedwhen such global issues as world
trade, world poverty, the environment, human rights, and the challenges of emerging
democracies are in play.
New stories: global policy issue areas
A. Global problems are intermestic: issues in which international and domestic concerns are
mixed.
1. Not only are economies tied together, but the air we breathe, the illnesses we contract,
and even our climate can be affected by events in other countries.
2. Opponents of international organizations regard global interactions as compromising
nations’ sovereignty.
B. Investment and trade
1. At the end of World War II, the United States dominated the world’s economy. This
dominance slowed, but even through the 1970s the United States was able to invest
heavily abroad.
2. The United States was able to make tactical use of economic policy in making foreign
policy during the Cold War.
a) The United States lowered trade barriers for Western Europe and Japan to shore
up anti-Soviet forces.
b) The United States did not allow products with possible military use to be
exported.
3. The situation changed in the 1980s.
a) Gaping deficits in the federal budget were partially financed by selling U.S.
Treasury obligations at high interest rates to foreigners.
b) The value of the dollar soared, making American goods expensive for the rest of
the world, and foreign goods cheap in the United States.
c) Foreign firms became less interested in investing in the United States, and
American economic problems deepened.
4. Dependence on foreign oil is an increasingly severe problem.
a) In 1960, the United States produced seven million barrels of oil and met over 80
percent of its needs.
b) Today, the United States imports two-thirds of the oil it consumes.
c) As other nations (especially China) increase their consumption, prices are
climbing.
5. The United States became more closely tied to other countries through international
tradebut this is a complicated story with many actual, and potential, plotlines.
a) Pursuing a true free trade policy would allow for the unfettered operation of the
free market.
(1) Free trade: an economic policy that allows businesses in different nations to
sell and buy goods.
(2) Free trade would allow the principle of comparative advantage to work
unhindered: all nations benefit when each nation specializes in those goods
it can produce most efficiently, and then trades them to obtain funds for the
things it can produce only at a comparatively higher cost.
(3) The United States does not have pure free trade, but it has generally favored
a relatively free trade regime in the last half of the twentieth century.
(4) Other nations do not always have such liberal policies, though, which may
put American goods at a disadvantage in the world market.
b) Americans want not only freedom, but fairness, in the world market.
(1) Fair trade: requires policymakers to create order through international
agreements outlawing unfair business practices.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
(2)
C.
247
The World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in 1995 to regulate
trade among its member nations.
(3) Rulings against U.S. laws have been highly technical and have had a limited
impact.
c) Managed trade: government intervention in trade policy in order to achieve a
specific result (such as paying down a balance-of-payment deficit).
(1) This approach is a clear departure from a free trade system.
(2) The United States has negotiated agreements with Japan to insure that
American firms get a larger share of the Japanese market for various
products.
d) Protectionists: those who wish to prevent imports from entering the country and
therefore oppose free trade.
(1) Protectionists are concerned with preserving American industries and jobs.
(2) Most unions and many small manufacturers opposed NAFTA.
(3) But protectionism is a double-edged sword: countries whose products are
kept out of the United States retaliate by refusing to import American
goods.
(4) Protectionism also complicates foreign policymaking about other issues: it
is a distinctly unfriendly toward nations that may be our allies.
Human rights, poverty, and foreign aid
1. NATO’s campaign against “ethnic cleansing” in the Balkans made clear that western
democracies would go to war to champion human rights.
2. Support for moral ideals such as freedom, democracy, and human rights fits well with
U.S. interests.
3. Nevertheless, the relationship between America’s human rights policy goals and its
economic policy goals has often been problematic. Many of the “big emerging
markets” (BEMs), such as China, Indonesia, and Turkey, have problematic records in
the areas of human rights, worker’s rights, and child labor.
4. The United States uses other economic tools to pursue human rights policy objectives.
a) Development aid, debt forgiveness, and loans with favorable credit terms are all
used to assist developing nations.
b) The United States also donates American goods, which directly benefits the
American businesses that supply the products.
c) Growing income disparities between the industrialized North and the nonindustrial southern nations may lead to political instability and threaten the
interests of the democracies in the developed world.
5. Foreign aid is an easy target when the budget is tight.
a) Foreign aid recipients do not vote in American elections.
b) Americans overestimate the amount that goes to foreign aid (half of survey
respondents believe 15 percent of the budget goes to aid to other countries; in
actuality, the amount is less than 1 percent). (See Figure 20.2 in text.)
6. In the last month of his administration, President Clinton signed the treaty to establish
the International Criminal Court.
a) The Court has jurisdiction over individuals on charges of genocide, war crimes,
and other crimes against humanity.
b) The treaty was controversial because the armed services feared that American
troops abroad could be vulnerable to prosecution as a result of military actions.
c) President George W. Bush “unsigned” the treaty in 2002.
d) In 2005, ninety-nine countries, but not the United States, were members.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
D.
The environment
1. Environmental issues have posed the challenge of freedom versus order in the
international arena.
2. Third World leaders have not wanted limits imposed on their freedom to industrialize
under the terms of global order defined by the developed nations.
3. The United States has often drawn attacks from both developed and underdeveloped
nations for claiming special privileges in international agreements accepted by other
nations.
a) The United States has been unwilling to abide by the terms of the Biodiversity
Treaty that was the product of the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
b) Similar problems occurred in regard to the 1997 understanding on global
warming that was developed in Kyoto.
c) In 2006, the Bush administration did accept a study that found “clear evidence of
human influences on the climate system.”
III. Viewers or actors? the public and global policy
A. Historically, the public has paid little attention to traditional foreign policy issues, except for
issues of war and peace and the spread of communism.
B. Globalization has made nations more interdependent, and events in other countries have
more of a direct impact on life in the United States.
C. The public and the majoritarian model
1. A 2004 survey reveals that Americans’ interest in the news of other countries, and their
interest in American relations with other countries, has not changed much since 1974
(except for a spike in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks).
2. Most people think globalization is mostly good, but there are still a substantial number
who think “protecting American workers” is very important.
3. The study confirmed that Americans continue to have a low level of support for
“bringing a democratic form of government to other nations.”
4. Public opinion seems to have little unique effect on foreign policy.
D. Interest groups and the pluralist model
1. Interest groupsincluding foreign firms, groups, and governmentshave hired
lobbying firms to represent their issues in Washington.
a) The influence of these groups varies depending on the issue.
b) Given that the public has little interest in foreign affairs, interest groups can have
a great effect on global policies outside matters of national security (e.g., the
China Trade Bill).
2. Passage of the 2000 China Trade Bill illustrates the pluralist model in action.
a) It was the kind of technical, complex bill that interested only small segments of
the population.
b) Lobbying on both sides was intense; the bill passed both the House and Senates
by large margin.
E. Global and foreign policy decision making may be the least majoritarian aspect of
policymaking.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
249
FOCUS LECTURE 20.1
Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy
Concern for international human rights as a dimension of United States foreign policy has moved in and
out of the U.S. policy agenda since World War II. In the process, definitions of human rights have
ranged from very narrow (concern for freedom and civil liberties) to extremely broad (concern for
equality and social, economic, and cultural rights).
I.
U.S. foreign policy between World War II and the present varied with presidential eras.
A. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–1945)
1. Roosevelt initially gave little direct attention to foreign policy.
a) His welfare-oriented legislation in the 1930s indicated the basic approach his
administration would take.
b) Roosevelt adopted a “good neighbor policy” toward Latin America.
2. In the 1940s, increasing attention was given to international human rights.
a) A broadly defined Economic Bill of Rights (1944) argued that a decent standard
of living for all people is required for world peace and that individual freedom
cannot exist without economic security and independence.
b) Although this policy was U.S.-centered, Roosevelt saw it as applicable to the
world at large.
B. Truman and Eisenhower (1945–1961)
1. After World War II, concern for human rights reached its culmination in the drafting
and U.S. endorsement of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(December 10, 1948). Afterward, there was a downturn in attention to human rights
issues.
2. The Cold War period of preoccupation with the USSR brought a domestic backlash to
the liberal, internationalist outlook of the New Deal.
a) International human rights obligations were seen as encroaching upon the
sovereignty of the United States and conflicting with the Constitution.
b) There was resistance to the idea, gaining credence elsewhere, that human rights
are an international matter, not only a domestic issue.
c) In this mood, the United States did not ratify the 1951 genocide convention.
3. By 1953, the Eisenhower administration had abandoned any U.S. effort to increase the
promotion of international human rights, and human rights were at the bottom of the
hierarchy of national interests.
a) Secretary of State John Foster Dulles contended that human rights were relevant
only to the extent that they could be used to divide the world into the “free
world” and the “captive world.”
b) The United States was willing to intervene militarily in the affairs of a
developing nation if U.S. economic interests were involved or if there was the
perception of “communist influence,” as in Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, and
Lebanon in 1958.
c) The United States was not, however, prepared to intervene in the domestic affairs
of a state that engaged in significant human rights violations if it also opposed
communism.
C. Kennedy and Johnson (1961–1969)
1. This was a period of expansive international liberalism, typified by the Peace Corps,
the Alliance for Progress, official support for self-determination (especially when it
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
D.
was threatened by the Soviet Union), and global involvement in the internal affairs of
foreign societies.
a) Americans believed that development would produce stability and democracy.
b) There was a willingness to look at economic rights as important in promoting
civil and political rights, especially in developing countries.
c) President Kennedy believed the United States had a moral responsibility toward
other countries (an attitude of noblesse oblige) and that problems of developing
countries were problems of the United States—including human rights violations.
2. The primary focus, however, was still on protecting U.S. economic interests and
responding to perceived threats from communism. Examples include the following:
a) Anti-Castro interventionist activities, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
b) Intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965.
c) Escalating involvement in Vietnam.
Nixon and Ford (1969–1977)
1. There was a reversal in mood in U.S. foreign policy, resulting in a downturn in support
for human rights at the presidential level.
2. Nixon emphasized the legitimacy of territorial sovereignty and of the existing political
order.
3. There was little concern with human rights, even in communist countries.
a) Kissinger believed that U.S. national interests (which did not include human
rights abroad) must shape our international commitments.
b) He scorned introducing human rights concerns into serious diplomacy, feeling
that such concerns were “moralistic encumbrances upon the serious business of
negotiating stable arrangements of state power.”
c) “This was evident in the United Nations, where the United States, during
[Ambassador Daniel] Moynihan’s tenure, stridently used human rights as an
ideological tool against the Third World in an effort to dilute the anti-apartheid
campaign.” (Richard Falk, Human Rights and State Sovereignty [New York:
Holmes and Meier, 1981] p. 13.)
4. During the Nixon years, the war in Vietnam continued, but was restructured to reduce
the number of American troops and to rely more on bombing raids and on the South
Vietnamese army.
a) Nixon escalated the war while talking about “peace with honor.”
b) In 1970, he authorized the bombing of Cambodia as a secret tactic.
c) When the bombing of Cambodia became public knowledge, outrage erupted in
the United States, particularly on college campuses.
d) Four American college students were killed at Kent State University (in Ohio) by
National Guardsmen who fired into a crowd of demonstrators.
5. Even as bombing intensified, Nixon was involved in secret talks in Paris that
ultimately led to the open peace talks.
a) Nixon left office in 1974 as a result of the Watergate scandal.
b) It was actually during the presidency of Gerald Ford that South Vietnam
collapsed (1975). In the years following that collapse, large numbers of
Vietnamese sought refuge in the United States.
c) Like many other foreign policy operations, Vietnam left the United States with a
complex legacy of loss and grief, and with new immigrants to assimilate.
6. Nixon, like many other presidents, often preferred private diplomacy before public
discussion of policy.
a) Private diplomacy led to the surprise opening of diplomatic relations with
Communist China in 1971 and 1972.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
After Nixon’s death in 1994, his China accomplishments remained among his
most noted foreign policy actions.
Carter (1977–1981)
A. Human rights were a major personal concern for President Carter.
1. Carter referred to human rights in his inaugural address (and in his announcement of
his candidacy for the presidency).
a) This allowed Carter to reassert U.S. leadership abroad without heavy
expenditures or an elaborate foreign policy.
b) It was consistent with his world view and his interest in international morality,
restoring to the United States its traditional role as “defender of democracy and
individual liberty.”
c) He believed that the United States should fulfill its commitments as expressed in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights
documents.
2. Carter restructured the State Department.
a) He created the Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs and the InterAgency Group on Human Rights and Foreign Assistance.
b) The group included representatives from: the Treasury Department; Departments
of Agriculture and Commerce; National Security Council; Overseas Private
Investment Corporation; Agency for International Development; and InterAmerican Development Bank and the World Bank.
B. Carter was rather specific in his understanding of human rights.
1. Specific human rights were defined, categorized, and prioritized both in Carter’s 1978
speech on the thirtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
in a 1977 speech by his secretary of state, Cyrus Vance.
a) Personal security rights come first. Carter stated: “Of all human rights, the most
basic is to be free of arbitrary violence [torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading
treatment; arbitrary arrest or imprisonment; and denial of fair trial]—whether that
violence comes from governments, from terrorists, from criminals, or from selfappointed messiahs operating under the cover of politics or religion. ... The first
duty of government is to protect its citizens.”
(1) Compare this statement to the “original purpose” of government in Chapter
1—to protect life and property.
(2) The difference is that “human rights” limits the government’s use of
arbitrary violence.
(3) Thus, “human rights” really amounts to freedom from government
oppression—or what we referred to in Chapter 16 as civil liberties.
b) Civil liberties and political rights: Freedom of thought, religion, assembly,
speech, press, movement, participation in government—these are necessary in
order to fulfill the following type of rights.
c) Economic and welfare rights: Food, shelter, health care, education, and the right
to emigrate and reunite families.
(1) Compare securing these rights with government’s role in promoting
equality.
(2) These are the rights described in Chapter 16.
2. There was no clear articulation of what specific institutions were to be responsible for
implementing these rights, but Carter spoke of greater commitment to the United
Nations.
3. Emphasizing the need to be “realistic” and pragmatic, Cyrus Vance outlined three sets
of questions that would serve as broad guidelines in determining U.S. action in
response to human rights violations.
b)
II.
251
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252
Chapter 20: Global Policy
a)
b)
c)
C.
The nature of the particular case under consideration
As assessment of the prospects for effective action
A wide-ranging perspective, including concern for U.S. security issues and for
the welfare of people in other countries
4. Vance’s deputy secretary of state, Warren Christopher, said, “Human rights, while a
fundamental factor in our foreign policy, cannot always be the decisive factor.”
Carter’s success in implementing human rights was uneven, but he was more successful than
any previous president had been.
1. His administration withheld at least some economic or military assistance from
numerous countries, including Brazil, Chile, El Salvador (aid was cut in 1980, but
restored in 1981), Ethiopia, Guatemala (military aid was cut in response to the killing
of thousands of Indians), and Paraguay.
2. His administration gave mixed support to the United Nations arms embargo against
South Africa.
3. His administration did not cut aid, however, to other nations with human rights
violations—South Korea, the Philippines, and Nicaragua under Somoza.
4. The Carter administration also enjoyed cooperation from the Soviet Union on the issue
of Jewish emigration in the years before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan:
Year
Number of Jews Allowed to Emigrate
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980 (Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan)
1981
D.
14,261
16,736
28,864
51,320
21,471
9,447
Within the United States, Carter’s human rights policy drew criticism from both the right
and the left.
1. The left felt that Carter ultimately supported the status quo and that the United States
was hypocritical because it supported some states with material used for state terrorist
activities.
a) Examples: the Philippines under Marcos; Iran under the Shah; and South Korea,
Indonesia, and Morocco.
b) In fact, at least one statistical study found that “states which engage in
government-supported violations of civil liberties and state terror are more likely
to receive substantial arms transfers from the United States than states with more
favorable records.” (Deborah J. Gerner, “Weapons for Repression? U.S. Arms
Transfers to the Third World,” in Foreign Policy and State Terror, edited by
Michael Stohl and George Lopez [Westwood, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987].)
2. Critics on the right made these points:
a) The United States cannot and should not interfere in another state’s domestic
affairs; sovereignty is absolute, and morality should not be instilled into
international affairs.
b) Even if the United States should “do something” about human rights, it is not
clear that we have sufficient influence abroad to accomplish very much, and
trying to do something might do more harm than good.
c) There is a fundamental difference between totalitarianism (communist) and
authoritarian (noncommunist) regimes, and the latter are preferred to the former
according to our self-interest.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
253
Outside the United States, Carter’s policy was also viewed differently.
1. Many opposition leaders and other individuals in developing nations reacted positively
to Carter’s initiatives, and he is still warmly regarded within such circles.
2. Leaders of some other countries, however, did not like Carter’s attacks on their human
rights policies.
a) Argentina refused to participate in the grain embargo against the Soviets in part
because of Carter’s criticism of its human rights record.
b) The United States risked alienating Israel by addressing the question of
Palestinians’ rights in Israel and its occupied territories.
c) Several countries (e.g., Uruguay and Brazil) refused to accept U.S. military and
economic assistance because of U.S. criticism.
3. Carter commented, “Our country paid a price for its emphasis on human rights. There
were leaders of oppressive regimes who deeply resented any comment about their
politics, because they had reason to fear the reaction of their own people against them
when their oppression was acknowledged by the outside world” (Keeping Faith, p.
151).
III. Reagan and Bush (1981–1993)
A. Reagan’s basic approach was mostly a reaction to, and criticism of, the Carter
administration.
1. Reagan was attracted by Jeane Kirkpatrick’s article “Dictatorships and Double
Standards” (Commentary, November, 1979), which was critical of Carter’s policies,
and he appointed her ambassador to the United Nations.
2. Whereas Carter’s focus was on human rights, broadly defined, Reagan stressed
“international terrorism” by nonstate actors.
3. Reagan distinguished between authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, arguing that the
former were less of a problem than the latter. According to this view,
a) The best way to advance human rights is “by strengthening our resolve and our
resources to defend our allies who are threatened by totalitarian aggression or
subversion” (Ernest W. Lefever, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on
International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 96th Congress,
1st Session).
b) In general, repressive regimes are acceptable if they are also anticommunist.
4. State sovereignty constitutes an absolute and total barrier to including human rights as
a topic of discussion or cause for action in the foreign policy arena. The Reagan
administration, however, took a leading role in helping remove Marcos from the
Philippines and Duvalier from Haiti. Expediency helped to determine these moves, for
the United States had learned from its experience with the Shah not to back dictators to
the bitter end.
5. Subsequent events in Haiti indicate that the Reagan policy was inadequate in creating
democratic processes there.
B. Reagan policy in Central America during the 1980s became part of the Iran-Contra scandal
that unfolded in the late 1980s.
1. Under President Reagan and Vice President Bush, American military officers, both
active and retired, became advisers and fund raisers for Nicaraguan
counterrevolutionaries.
2. These advisers/fund raisers operated in secret and in direct opposition to congressional
decisions. In 1982, Congress enacted the Boland Amendment specifically to prohibit
any U.S. involvement in Nicaraguan military or civil disputes.
3. The secrecy of the operations became the subject of intense scrutiny by a congressional
investigating committee, and several people were found guilty of lying to Congress
and other misdemeanors.
E.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
4.
President Reagan, both during his time in office and in his retirement, continued to
insist that he had no personal knowledge of the secret and illegal operations.
5. In his autobiography, Oliver North, a defendant in the Iran-Contra case, claimed that
then-President Reagan did indeed know of his covert operations.
C. One of the most debatable aspects of Reagan-Bush foreign policy was the impact of
Reagan’s arms buildup on the breakup of the Soviet Union.
1. Some argue that the U.S. arms buildup of the 1980s forced the USSR to compete, thus
straining its economy.
2. This line of thought suggests that it was primarily the Cold War struggle for military
predominance that forced the changes that led to the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
3. A contrasting view suggests that the internal problems in the Soviet economy and its
own military-industrial complex were more important factors in its collapse.
4. This view stresses the undemocratic nature of Soviet politics and the inevitability of
the eventual breakdown and push for democracy.
5. The debate over the impact of Reagan’s foreign policy will continue, but there is no
question that the United States must evolve a foreign policy appropriate for the post–
Cold War world.
IV. Clinton (1993– 2001)
A. Bill Clinton’s foreign policy has been labeled indecisive by most political observers, on both
the left and right.
B. He campaigned on several human rights themes.
1. However, in office he reneged on promises regarding trade relations with China.
2. He also struggled with policy regarding Haiti and the thousands of refugees who tried
to enter the United States by boat.
C. Clinton’s basic approach appears most like Jimmy Carter’s: a human rights emphasis. Yet
Clinton was very concerned about economic relations and about avoiding another Vietnam.
D. Clinton’s challenge will remain the challenge of U.S. foreign policy for the foreseeable
future.
1. The United States is the major power in the world, both militarily and economically.
2. Many of the world’s nations are underdeveloped and have large impoverished
populations.
3. Many nations have weapons that could threaten world security.
4. Increasing economic competition requires a new approach to foreign policy.
5. The relationship among individual nations is evolving as nations form economic blocs,
such as NAFTA (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) and the EEC (European
Common Market).
6. The world is probably safer in some ways than it was during the Cold War, yet it is
still dangerous in terms of isolated groups, individuals, or nations armed with weapons
of mass destruction.
7. The role of the United States is changing, yet to some degree it still resembles its past
role as the “world’s policeman.”
8. From Clinton onward, all American presidents will have to decide where, when, how,
and—especially—why U.S. military force should be used in a world without a
communist threat.
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Chapter 20: Global Policy
255
PROJECTS, ACTIVITIES, AND SMALL-GROUP ACTIVITIES
1.
The majoritarian model of democracy advocates more reliance on the public’s opinionsin this
case, regarding the construction of foreign policy. It may be interesting to find out what kinds of
foreign policies would result if your class represented all American citizens in a majoritarian
political system. Give students a short objective questionnaire on the major global policy
questions that are relevant today. Make sure that most of the policy alternatives are available for
each issue, as well as a “don’t know” category. Summarize the results and discuss them with your
class. How much variation did you find in the policy orientation of your students? Discuss with
your students whether the policy views held by the majority of the class correspond to those of the
American public. (It might be best to administer the questionnaire during the class session before
the chapter is assigned.)
2.
Economic aid is one of the positive economic inducements U.S. policymakers use in persuading
countries to support the policies of the United States. Ask students to use the U.S. Statistical
Abstract to construct a table of the twenty largest recipients of American aid for the last five
years. Ask them to distinguish between military and nonmilitary aid. Have students develop
explanations for high levels of aid in terms of U.S. foreign policy interests and domestic politics.
3.
Prepare your students for this small group activity by asking them to bring a current newspaper,
online article, or magazine to class. (Your preference may be for them to read an article on some
foreign policy issue before class.) Students can form small groups to analyze the following issues:
What three circumstances or events would create a legitimate reason for U.S. military intervention
in another nation? What are some events or circumstances that do not legitimize U.S. military
intervention? Students may use current events as examples. Allow groups about fifteen minutes
and then reconvene the class. Each group can report on their discussion. What themes seem to be
repeated? What trends in attitude does the class represent? Ask students to identify themselves as
isolationist or interventionist; ask them to evaluate their attitudes about unilateral action versus
multilateral action.
INTERNET RESOURCES
Department of State www.state.gov/
Interested in a career in foreign service? Want to learn more about a specific foreign policy issue
or country? Check out the State Department’s home page.
Central Intelligence Agency www.cia.gov/
View data about other countries, and learn more about agency operations.
National Security Council www.whitehouse.gov/nsc
The National Security Council is the president’s principal forum for considering national security
and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials.
The WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources www.etown.edu/vl/
This site is a good place to start when searching for information on foreign affairs.
Amnesty International Online www.amnesty.org/
Visit this site to learn more about human rights abuses or to become active in the cause of human
rights.
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