POLS 4033 American Foreign Policy

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POLS 4033American Foreign Policy

• Rosati, Chapter 5/ Presentation II
• The Bureaucracy, Presidential Management and the
  National Security Council

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Key Issues

• Presidential Management Styles and the Role of
  the NSC
• Clintons Management Style and the NSC
• Bush, Jr.s Management Style and the NSC

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1) Presidential Management Styles and the Role of
the NSC

• Our Own Worst Enemy (1984)
• Three major stages in the evolution of the NSC
  foreign policy process
• a) Phase 1 Cabinet dominance
• b) Phase 2 NSC/Cabinet eclipsed
• c) Phase 3 NSC advisor ascendant

Leslie Gelb (1937- ), President of the Council on
Foreign Relations
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1a) Phase 1 NSC as Advisory Body

• Trumans inexperience, reliance on Secretaries of
  State (Acheson) and Defense (Marshall)
• Eisenhowers institutionalization instincts
  reliance on his Secretary of State (Dulles)

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1b) Phase 2 The Rise of the NSC Advisor and Staff

• JFKs informal management style
• The impact of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban
  Missile Crisis (Excomm)
• LBJs inexperience preference for cronies
• The Tuesday Lunch Group and the rise of
  groupthink

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1c) The NSC Advisor and Staff Ascendant

• Rise in prominence of the NSC advisor
• Nixon-Kissinger as the height of centralization
  of policymaking
• Two overlapping policy levels
• Informal meetings
• Formal interagency process

Henry Kissinger (1923- )
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1ci) The Nixon-Kissinger SystemPutting Paranoia
to Work

• Reinforcing strengths, and weakness
• Strengths political adroitness and mental acuity
• Weaknesses Innate mistrust of the bureaucracy,
  tendency to take opposition personally

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1cii) The Nixon-Kissinger System

• Neither was particularly interested in advice
• NSC system was employed as a means of controlling
  and circumventing the rest of the foreign policy
  bureaucracy
• The extensive use of back channels

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1ciii) Essay 5.3Henry Kissinger

• An academic uniquely skilled at bureaucratic
  in-fighting
• Public humiliation of Secretary of State William
  Rogers
• Inspired use of the media through background
  briefings

Time cover with Nixon and Kissinger opening
China
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1civ) Ford and Carter

• Ford continued many of Nixons foreign policies
  after Nixons resignation
• Fords relative inexperience in foreign affairs
• Carter had a very different worldview, but kept a
  fairly centralized system in place
• Carters reliance of Zbigniew Brzezinski and
  Cyrus Vance

By year 3 of Carters term, Brzezinski and Vance
were at each others throats, which contributed
to the perception of a chaotic and mismanaged
foreign policy
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1d) Reagans Management Style

• Reagans initial decision to rely more on a
  cabinet-centered process
• Reagans much more informal advisory process
• The Baker-Deaver-Meese team
• Al Haigs overshoot and collapse

Reagan was plagued with frequent turnover and his
own hands-off management style
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1di) The NSC RampantThe Road to the Iran-Contra
Affair

• Executive-legislative conflict over policy in
  Central America
• The Boland Amendment attempted circumvention
• A serious scandal that nearly brought impeachment
  charges

Oliver North was able to parley his role in the
scandal to hero-status among conservatives
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1e) G.H.W. Bushs Management Style

• The emphasis on prudence and competence
• The Scowcroft-Baker-Powell team
• Gulf War I as the high-water mark for the Bush
  foreign policy
• The failure to capitalize on the end of the Cold
  war

Bushs caution led many to criticize him for
lacking vision
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2) Clintons Management Style and NSC

• Wonky but inexperienced
• The creation of the role of National Economic
  Advisor
• Informal to the point of undisciplined
• Focused like a laser-beam on the economy

Clinton would preside over bull sessions that
lasted for hours in the search for consensus
positions
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2i) Anthony Lake

• NSC advisor from 1993-1997
• Determined to maintain a low-key profile
• Credited with policy that resolved the Bosnian
  conflict

Antony Lake meeting with Pres. Clinton and chief
of staff Leon Panetta
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3) G. W. Bushs Management Style and the NSC

• A startling absence of experience or curiosity
• 1st Term appeared to surround himself with
  Fathers foreign policy experts
• The formidable Cheney-Rumsfeld team

Many Americans viewed his impromptu speech atop
the rubble of the World Trade Center as the high
point of Bushs career
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3i) More Like Reagan Than Dad

• More conservative than Dad
• Lack of curiosity leads to excessive delegation
• Decision to invade Iraq appears to have been made
  with little consideration of the complexities
  likely to emerge