POLS 4033 American Foreign Policy

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POLS 4033American Foreign Policy

• Rosati, Chapter 4/Presentation 1
• Presidential Power and Leadership

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Key Issues

• The Post-Cold War Presidency Thesis
• The Elements of Presidential Power
• The Paradox of Presidential Power
• The Problem of Presidential Governance
• Presidential Power in Foreign Policy An Overview

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1) The Post-Cold War Presidency Thesis

• The central problem for post-Cold War presidents
• Expanded opportunities for US foreign policy
• BUT, presidents also face higher obstacles to
  exercising power

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1i) Crisis Opportunity

• Crises expand presidents prerogative powers
• However, such expansions tend to be temporally
  limited
• Is this the case in our current situation?

Ancient Chinese motto Crisis is opportunity
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2) The Elements of Presidential Power

• The most powerful actor
• The function of constitutional roles?
• The reality of presidential power

JFK silhouetted in the windows of the Oval Office
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2a) Commander-in-Chief

• Article II, Sec. 2 designates the president as
  civilian head of the military
• Power (theoretically) balanced by congressional
  role in declaring war

Harry Truman (1884-1972), broadly interpreted
presidential powers to send troops into Korea
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2b) Chief Diplomat

• Power emanates from the Article II appointment
  authority
• The importance of diplomatic recognition
• The role of summitry in the practice of foreign
  policy

Trumans controversial decision to meet with
Chaim Weizman led to US recognition of the state
of Israel in 1948.
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2bi) Camp David AccordsSummitry in Action

• Historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt,
  March 26, 1979
• Carter staked enormous amounts of personal
  prestige in forging the agreement

Pres. Carter, Menachem Begin, and Anwar Sadat
enjoy a mutual handshake
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2bii) Primping for Peace

• 1993 Oslo Accords
• Attempts to peacefully resolve the
  Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the aftermath of
  the Cold War
• Is separatism the key to solving this conflict?

Pres. Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, King Hussein
straighten their ties before a press conference
to announce the Oslo Accords
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2c) Chief Administrator

• The power of the president to shape the executive
  branch through the appointment power is often
  overlooked
• Presidential reliance on advice from foreign
  policy experts

Former NSC Advisor and current Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice
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2d) Chief of State

• What is the distinction in roles between the head
  of government and head of state?
• How many nations collapse those roles like the
  US?
• Is that too much power?

Pres. Bush, throwing out the ceremonial first
pitch of the MLB season in Cincinnati, OH
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2e) Chief Legislator

• The presidents role as chief legislator has
  its origins in FDRs aggressive promotion of
  legislative solutions to the Great Depression
• What constitutional role does the president play
  in the legislative process?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1944)
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2f) Voice of the People

• Access to the bully pulpit
• The president can (potentially) speak on behalf
  of all 300 million Americans
• The presumption of a mandate (Clinton, Bush II)

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2g) Chief Judicial Officer

• What are the presidents constitutional powers
  over judicial politics?
• The power of appointments
• Bushs handling of the Justice Department a
  model of executive decision-making?

Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon on September
8, 1974
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3) Limits and Constraints

• Presidents are very powerful, but not
  all-powerful
• Presidents must operate in a democratic
  environment that imposes numerous constraints on
  their discretionary power

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3a) Time

• A full-time job
• See Essay 4.1 on President Carters work schedule
  for 11/16/79 on pp. 72-73
• The 22nd Amendment as a further limitation on a
  amount of time any president has in which to get
  anything accomplished

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3b) Information

• Presidents as generalists
• A job with a steep learning curve
• Two information problems scarcity and
  overabundance
• Was the Iraq invasion plagued by both kinds of
  information problems?

CIA Director George Tenet briefs the president
and vice president in August of 2002
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3c) The Bureaucracy

• Bureaucratic autonomy and the power of
  administrative discretion
• What are some of the advantages bureaucrats enjoy
  over their political superiors?

Many bureaucratic organizations are formally
independent from presidential authority. Can you
think of any examples?
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3d) Congress

• Separation of powers is a misnomer
• Its really about separate institutions sharing
  power
• Presidents must rely on persuasion to win support
  from Congress

Richard Neustadt (1919-2003)
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3e) State and Local Governments

• The realities of federalism
• Chapter 12 details the ways in which state and
  local governments can affect presidential power
  in foreign policy

Lots of interest groups have set up astroturf
operations to simulate grass roots support for
certain policies
Politicians have become particularly sensitive to
peoples attitudes toward illegal immigration
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3f) Political Parties

• The president as the public face of their
  political party
• However, parties are weak tools of presidential
  power. Why is that?

Is this the public face of the GOP?
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3g) Interest Groups and Social Movements

• The power and influence of sensitive electoral
  blocs
• Partisans can be sources of support or can
  impose constraints on presidential policy

U.S. Christian conservatives have become some of
the staunchest supporters of Israel, a factor the
current and future presidents must take into
account (Picture from the BBC)