Foreign Policy

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Foreign Policy
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• Soviet Union foreign policy is a puzzle inside a
  riddle wrapped in an enigma, and the key is
  Russian nationalism.
• Winston Churchill

Bill Clinton's foreign policy experience stems
mainly from having breakfast at the International
House of Pancakes. -Pat Buchanan
Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy,
because human rights is the very soul of our
sense of nationhood. -Jimmy Carter
Whatever it is that the government does,
sensible Americans would prefer that the
government does it to somebody else. This is the
idea behind foreign policy. -P.J. O Rourke
Domestic policy can only defeat us foreign
policy can kill us -JFK
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What is foreign policy?

• Foreign policy is defined as the diplomatic
  policy of a nation in its interactions with other
  nations, but there are many aspects to a nations
  foreign policy, and many specific terms used.

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Superpower

• A superpower is a state with a leading position
  in the international system and the ability to
  influence events and project power on a worldwide
  scale.
• US, USSR, British Empire (before Cold War)
• Brazil, China, EU, India, Russia (after Cold War)

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Nonaligned

• A country not allied with any other nations,
  neutral

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Balance of Power

• The distribution of power in which no single
  nation is able to dominate or interfere with
  others

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Arms Race

• A competition between nations to have the most
  powerful armaments.

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Neutrality

• The state or policy of being non partisan,
  especially during war

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Isolationism

• National policy of abstaining from political or
  economic relations with other countries.

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Monroe Doctrine

• (1823) US doctrine proclaiming the British had
  no right to interfere and colonize with the
  affairs of the newly independent nations of the
  Americas.

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Roosevelt Corollary

• (1904) Declaration made by Teddy Roosevelt which
  authorized US intervention in the affairs of
  neighboring American countries in order to
  counter threats posed to the US security and
  interests.

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Containment

• US strategy in the early years of the Cold War
  to prevent Communism from spreading.

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Domino Theory

• Theory promoted by the government that if one
  region came under Communist influence, then the
  surrounding regions would also.

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• Finally, you have broader considerations that
  might follow what you would call the "falling
  domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set
  up, you knock over the first one, and what will
  happen to the last one is the certainty that it
  will go over very quickly. So you could have a
  beginning of a disintegration that would have the
  most profound influences.
• -Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Domino Theory Continued

• Past
• Present

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Foreign Policy The Presidential Campaign
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John McCain on foreign policy in Iraq

• "Increasing U.S. troop levels will expose more
  brave Americans to danger and increase the number
  of American casualties. When Congress authorized
  this war, we committed America to a mission that
  entails the greatest sacrifice a country can
  make, one that falls disproportionately on those
  Americans who love their country so much that
  they volunteer to risk their lives to accomplish
  that mission. And when we authorized this war, we
  accepted the responsibility to make sure those
  men and women could prevail. Extending combat
  tours and accelerating the deployment of
  additional troops is a terrible sacrifice to
  impose on the best patriots among us, and they
  will understandably be disappointed when they are
  given that order. Then they will shoulder their
  weapons and do everything they can to protect our
  country's vital interests in Iraq."

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Hillary Clinton on foreign policy in Iraq

• Non-interference. Working with the U.N.
  representative, the group would work to convince
  Iraq's neighbors to refrain from getting involved
  in the civil war.
• Mediation. The group would attempt to mediate
  among the different sectarian groups in Iraq with
  the goal of attaining compromises on fundamental
  points of disputes.
• Reconstruction funding. The members of the group
  would hold themselves and other countries to
  their past pledges to provide funding to Iraq and
  will encourage additional contributions to meet
  Iraq's extensive needs.

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Barack Obama on foreign policy in Iraq

• Bringing Our Troops HomeObama will immediately
  begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will
  remove one to two combat brigades each month, and
  have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq
  within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that
  we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He
  will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our
  embassy and diplomats if al Qaeda attempts to
  build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in
  Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out
  targeted strikes on al Qaeda.

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Barack Obama continued

• Press Iraqs Leaders to ReconcileThe best way to
  press Iraqs leaders to take responsibility for
  their future is to make it clear that we are
  leaving. As we remove our troops, Obama will
  engage representatives from all levels of Iraqi
  society in and out of government to seek a
  new accord on Iraqs Constitution and governance.
  The United Nations will play a central role in
  this convention, which should not adjourn until a
  new national accord is reached addressing tough
  questions like federalism and oil revenue-sharing.

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Barack Obama Continued

• Regional DiplomacyObama will launch the most
  aggressive diplomatic effort in recent American
  history to reach a new compact on the stability
  of Iraq and the Middle East. This effort will
  include all of Iraqs neighbors including Iran
  and Syria. This compact will aim to secure Iraqs
  borders keep neighboring countries from meddling
  inside Iraq isolate al Qaeda support
  reconciliation among Iraqs sectarian groups and
  provide financial support for Iraqs
  reconstruction.

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Barack Obama Continued

• Humanitarian InitiativeObama believes that
  America has a moral and security responsibility
  to confront Iraqs humanitarian crisis two
  million Iraqis are refugees two million more are
  displaced inside their own country. Obama will
  form an international working group to address
  this crisis. He will provide at least 2 billion
  to expand services to Iraqi refugees in
  neighboring countries, and ensure that Iraqis
  inside their own country can find a safe-haven.

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Some questions to ponder

• Do we support any nation that goes along with us,
  or only those that are reasonably free and
  democratic? (Pakistan, Argentina, Cuba, Russia,
  China)
• Are we the worlds policeman? We did not
  intervene to prevent China from occupying Tibet,
  to end the massacre of thousands of Tutsis in
  Rwanda. But we did intervene to try to end a
  dictatorship in Haiti, to help starving people in
  Somalia, to turn back an Iraqi invasion of
  Kuwait, and to punish Serbs who were attacking
  KosovoWhy the bipolarity? Or are these
  decisions strategically made?

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Kinds of Foreign Policy

• Majoritarion politics (perceived to have widely
  distributed benefits and impose widely
  distributed costs)
• War
• Establishing military alliances with western
  Europe
• SALT

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• Interest Group politics
• Tariffs (help businesses, impose costs on other
  firms and unions)
• Ex if the price of Japanese steel imported into
  this country is increased by tariffs, or quotas,
  it helps American steel companies and workers,
  but it hurts firms that had been purchasing the
  once-cheap Japanese steel.

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• Client Politics
• Washington often provides aid to American
  corporations doing business abroad because the
  aid helps those firms directly without imposing
  any apparent costs on an equally distinct group
  in society.
• Ex our policy toward Israel has in part
  reflected the fact that Jews in this country feel
  strongly about the need to support a Jewish state
  abroad and are well organized to make those
  concerns felt. our textbook

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The Presidents Role

• 1845 James K Polk sent troops into Mexico to
  defend newly acquired Texas
• 1861 Abraham Lincoln blockaded southern ports
  and declared martial law
• 1950 Harry Truman sent American troops into S.
  Korea to help them repulse an attack from N.
  Korea.
• 1960s JFK and LBJ sent American forces into S.
  Vietnam without a declaration of war
• 1983 Reagan sent troops to overthrow a
  pro-Castro regime in Grenada

• 1989 George HW Bush ordered invasion of Panama
  to depose dictator Manuel Noriega
• 1990 Bush ordered troops to Saudi Arabia in
  response to Iraqs invasion of Kuwait
• 1999 Bill Clinton ordered the military to attack
  with bombs and cruise missiles Serbian forces
  that were trying to control Kosovo
• 2001 George W. Bush sent US troops to liberate
  Afghanistan from the Taliban
• 2003 The city of Baghdad was bombed

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Worldviews and how they shape foreign policy

• Worldviews (paradigms) are comprehensive mental
  pictures of the critical problems facing the
  United States in the world and of the appropriate
  and inappropriate ways of responding to these
  problems.

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Four key worldviews in American Foreign Policy

• Isolationism
• Adopted after WWI because our efforts to help
  European allies had turned sour, lost thousands
  of American lives, and had not made the world
  safe for democracy as Woodrow Wilson had
  stated. This was very popular from the 1920s to
  late 30s.

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• Containment
• Result of WWII/Pearl Harbor
• An attempt to build a network of defensive
  alliances in Europe and Asia to intervene with
  the spread of communism/ other corrupt
  governments (Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe)

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• 3. Disengagement
• aka Vietnam view, meaning entry into Vietnam,
  or any current entanglement, had/has led to a
  military defeat and a domestic political
  disaster.
• Considered an elitist viewpoint thinking war is
  immoral and being reluctant to American military
  involvement elsewhere.

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• Human rights
• Idea that the US should intervene in other
  countries affairs when human rights are being
  violated.
• Geneva conventions provide guidelines
  http//www.spj.org/gc-texts.asp

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Other things that shape foreign policy

• Economy (current recession)
• Environment (Kyoto protocol)
• Personal dogmas
• The United Nations (NATO, SALT, other
  international agreements/alliances)

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What do you think?

• These are a few highlights from John Perkinss
  book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
  According to the author, economic hit men are
  highly paid professionals who cheat countries
  around the globe out of trillions of dollars.
  They play a games as old as Empire but one that
  has taken on terrifying dimensions during this
  time of globalization.

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• 1974- Saudi royal family agrees to invest
  billions of dollars of oil income in US
  securities and to allow the US Dept. of Treasury
  to use the interest from those investments to
  hire US firms to build power and water systems,
  highways, ports, and cities in the kingdom. In
  exchange, the US guarantees the royal family will
  continue to rule.

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• 1981- Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldos (who is
  against American oil interests) and Panamanian
  president Omar Torrijos (wants Panama Canal to be
  strictly under their rule) die in fiery airplane
  crashes that have markings of CIA assassinations.
  So events like this have shaped our foreign
  policy

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Or maybe

• The US should not negotiate with communist
  countries such as Cuba, Colombia, and should also
  avoid relationships with unstable countries such
  as Iran and North Korea that want nuclear
  proliferation.
• The US was attacked out of the blue on 9/11 and
  had every right to invade Afghanistan to find and
  eradicate Taliban and Al Qaeda.
• In a continuing effort to secure the nation, the
  government believed that a pre-emptive strike was
  necessary in Iraq, a volatile dictatorship that
  has been known for its support of terrorist
  groups such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda.