PS 357 Test 1
The United States was an isolationist country in its founding years. True or False, EXPLAIN
While it put out a policy of autonomy and self-sufficiency, the US pursued expansionist foreign policy and also focused on foreign economic relations; the Monroe Doctrine provides an example where the US wanted to be politically separated from Europe and declared further colonization by European powers a threat to US Security; however, US still had strong economic ties to other nations, esp following War of 1812 with Britain
1. Analyze the following Michael Hirsh quote: "We have achieved our Founding Fathers' fondest dream, and, at the same time, their worst nightmare. We are a shining success, the supreme power on earth."
While yes, we made it from "sea to shining sea", promoting democracy throughout the world, our attempts to promote democracy are directly affected by our need to interfere in other governments; our democracy has become an oligarchy full of people who wish to see their interests win over the well-being of the public
Explain the decision making process:
a) translating national interest considerations into specific objectives b) determining the international and domestic situational factors related to the policy goals c) analyzing capabilities for achieving the results d) developing a strategy to reach the goal e) undertaking the requisite action f) review of process to evaluate success in reaching goals
hot wars" (define and give two examples)
conflict involving actual physical conflict; World War II;
1. Describe the concept of collective security and explain how it is historically relevant to U.S. foreign policy. How was the concept put into practice, and what are some of the reasons that it failed?
Collective security, introduced by Woodrow Wilson, was idea that leaders would denounce war and pledge to defend each other from outside aggression; concept was put into practice through League of Nations, however, because the US never joined due to Wilson's inability to get Congress to sign the treaty, LoN failed
1. What were the main sources of conflict after the Cold War?
conflicts in Persian gulf (terrorism), Northwest Africa, Yugoslavia; failed states (ex. Somalia where 50,000 citizens died in Civil War); Rwandan Genocide
1. What are the differences between hard power and soft power? In what ways does the United States exhibit both of these powers? How are they measured?
Hard power is tangible; it is the actual, real assets of a state; this is the coercive aspect of a state, most predominately in the form of military; soft power, on the other hand, is the attractiveness of a state, or the expression of its political values and cultural dynamism in ways that other societies and gov't may find appealing; US often regarded as an "idea" ; the soft power of the US enhances US security by highlighting shared rather than opposing interests and values--American popular culture and US inventors have influence abroad; Hard Power, on the other hand, is demonstrated primarily through our military and economic might; military spending was more than half of world spending in 2008; US has largest economy and is largest trading state
Name the four levels of analysis
Individual, domestic, interstate, global
What are some of the foreign policies that led to this expansion? Need to identify to key concepts of U.S. foreign policy of this era.
Monroe Doctrine; gunboat diplomacy; policy favoring autonomy and self-sufficiency; idea of American exceptionalism
What are examples of global factors
N-S gap, world regions, European imperialism, UN, world environment, tech, information rev,
Explain the decision to go to war in Iraq through the levels of analysis.
individual DMs: Bush's evangelical background as motivating force to invade Iraq; also 9/11 had affect on Bush's decision Domestic: Oil lobbyists who wanted to see US gain control of oil in Iraq Systemic: imperialism; balance of power
Bureaucratic politics
is the tendency of DMs to allow their conceptions of the national interest to be colored by their perceptions of what is good for their bureaucratic unit
neoliberal institutionalism
sees interstate cooperation as deriving from repeated interactions b/w gov't
"Big Stick" policy,
speak softly, but carry a big stick
1. Bretton Woods System and its institutions
system of fixed currency exchange rates based on the US dollar ("Good as Gold")' included World Bank (Lend money tomember states to rebuild industries) and International Monetary Fund (manage currency exchanges and provide relief to member states facing short-term currency crises)
1. Marshall Plan
1947 under Truman; provided aid to European slumping economies (13 billion) in low-interest loans; led to the creation of EU
What are three of the four challenges facing the United States' global position?
1) Cycles in Balance of Power; idea that all hegemons fall eventually; many fear that power concentrated in one state is dangerous; there is also the idea of imperial overstretch by which the Roman, Dutch Ottoman, Spanish, British, and Russian empires bit off more than they could chew; also, there is the long cycle theory that states that a dominant power's strength in relation to others peaks and and then erodes; sustained American primacy is likely to give way to a new balance of world power 2)The Shadow of the Past-the rhetoric of freedom and justice has not always been the case, as the US has a history of slaves, violence against Native Americans, and frequent interventions in Latin America; US also has shown racial tendencies (Survival of the fittest); US has supported dictators that do not have same ideologies as US (ex. Saddam Hussein); War in Vietnam cast doubts on virtues of US foreign policy; war on terror showed abuses by US guards; US double standards damage US credibility but also provoke direct challenges to its world power--ex. Iran's 1979 revolution fueled by anti-American antagonism; 3)Resistance to globalization-US led globalization has broadened North-South gap and introduced environmental issues; many don't see a benefit from American-led globalization 4)Terrorism and Asymmetric warfare-terrorists seek to gain attention and political concessions by instilling mass fear in their enemy; uses asymmetric war that "exploits vulnerabilities by using weapons and tactics that are unplanned or unexpected"; US is seen as the primary target of global terrorist groups bc of its visible role in the Middle East; US military strategy historically based on fighting conventional wars; US has traditionally viewed warfare as an exception to general rule of peace; enemy is invisible foe often impossible to engage through diplomacy
1. What are three main aspects of the paradox of U.S. world power? In your own words, describe the paradox of U.S. foreign policy.
1) in seeking to sustain its global primacy, the US is increasingly constrained by the very forces that propelled its rise to global predominance; its strengths create vulnerabilities (national exceptionalism, diffusion of domestic foreign policy powers, faith in open markets, free rein granted to civil society in policy process)
1. How has the idea of a "good and evil" dichotomy affected U.S. foreign policy? Provide examples to support your answer.
American leaders/presidents have been much more able to antagonize the enemy. For example, in the early 1980s, Reagan condemned the Soviet Union as an "evil empire"; Bill Clinton identified "rogue states" as the principal threat to the US; After 9/11, Bush described struggle with terrorism in Biblical terms, and later declared nation's enemies to be part of an "axis of evil" that must be destroyed for US to be secure; US National style, and its sense of national exceptionalism
1. Bipolar vs. unipolar; define and discuss when the international system was which
Bipolar is when the world is dominated by two competing powers. An example of this time was during the Cold War when the US and USSR were at the forefront of global affairs. At present, the US maintains a predominant share of the world's economic, military, and other resources that a country needs to project power beyond its borders, therefore we are in a unipolar system currently, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
What is bounded rationality
Bounded rationality is the idea that in decision-making, rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make a decision.
Name one example to a threat of American hegemony
China; according to us intelligence council, China is likely to surpass the US in key categories of national strength by 2040; created an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to rival US-based World Bank
1. What was the main foreign policy strategy during the Cold War?
Containment-
What is the rational actor model
Decision makers (DMs) carefully define and identify foreign policy (FP) problems, gather all available information about the FP options, weigh all the alternatives, choose the one that is most likely to promote national interests
1. Identify and briefly define the three institutions/agencies created by the National Security Act of 1947.
Dept. of Defense National Security Council Central Intelligence Agency
Organizational Process Model
Focus is on organizational process WITHIN agencies a) bounded rationality b) large organizational units and SOPs are key Choices are byproducts of ogranizational processes Contrains choices Routines are key
What are some of the ways that the United States expanded its territory in its early history?
Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon -Annexation of Texas -Pursuit westward "manifest destiny" as a result of Monroe doctrine
Roosevelt Corollary
Roosevelt's 1904 expansion of the Monroe Doctrine proclaiming that the US had authority to act as an "int'l police power" outside its borders in order to maintain stability in the Western Hemisphere; U.S. involvement in Latin America justified to secure U.S. economic interests and stable regimes
1. domino theory
The domino theory was a theory prominent from the 1950s to the 1980s that posited that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect.
How have perspectives on presidential power changed over the years?
Through the 50s and 60s, a powerful president was perceived as good, but from the 70s on, presidential power was distrusted and checked by the public
1. Truman Doctrine
Truman's pledge to provide military aid to Greece and Turkey to help overcome internal communist revolts and, more broadly to support "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures"
Give an example of the Iron Triangle in action.
US defense industry; "military-industrial complex"; Defense contractors exert strong influence over members of Congress who control defense funding and the fate of individual weapons programs; these members of Congress, many who serve on Armed Services Committees, have political and personal incentives to satisfy the contractors because these business represent jobs and votes in their districts and provide campaign contributions; the Pentagon's desire go maintain or increase funding levels, mixed with lobbying efforts of defense contractors, places ongoing pressure on congressional committees to increase military spending
1. Monroe Doctrine
US wanted to be politically separated from Europe and declared further colonization by European powers a threat to US Security
What are examples of governmental (domestic) factors?
bureaucratic politics and rivalries, advisory systems; nationalism; type of gov't; political parties and elections, public opinion, gender, econ sectors
What are examples of individual factors?
great/crazy leader; belief systems, cognitive limitations, personality traits
Name the specific constitutional powers of the presiden
head of state-commander in chief of military; veto power; can make treaties w/ other nations; appointment powers; nominates judges
What is an issue network?
model of decision making that involves more actors and is more open to competing viewpoints than the iron triangle model; brings together interested governmental and private actors with shared expertise in a given area of public policy
hegemon
nation-state that exerts a sphere of influence over other states and societies
1. The concept of the "End of History" refers to
political and philosophical concept that supposes that a particular political, economic, or social system may develop that would constitute the end-point of humanity's sociocultural evolution and the final form of human government.
Realism and Structural Realism
power based theory of IR; states are self-interested actors in a constant struggle for power in an anarchic world; state is unitary and rational and most important actor; war is inevitable
What are examples of interstate factors?
power; balance of power; alliance; wars, treaties, trade agreements, IGOs, diplomacy, summit meetings, bargaining, reciprocity
Bush Doctrine
president's decision to strike first; launching preventative wars (ex. War in Iraq); came from aftermath of 9/11
What complicates American foreign policy process?
public opinion, the news media, interest groups, and intergovernmental organizations; the "iron triangle" trying to remain a unified front despite having three separate branches and often a divided Congress; the imperial President--President having too much power
Obama Doctrine
rebalancing US foreign policy: diplomatic over military, geographical pivot to East Asia, domestic over global priorities; based on selective use of America's world power
What is the Iron Triangle?
the alliance of influential interest groups, congressional committees, and corresponding exec branch agencies to carry out policies of mutual concern to the exclusion f other policy actors or outside interests
Define the Cuban Missile Crisis in terms of each decision making model
the rational actor model looks at the strategic choices made by both superpowers 2) the bureaucratic model focused on bargaining among the various DM units 3) The organizational process model focused on the SOPs
constructivism
world politics do not have fixed properties; they are instead "socially constructed" by people, primarily through public discourse; ideas matter; power and institutions are not the only factors to consider, must also consider soft power; "anarchy is what the state makes of it" ; -ex: cause of WWI was Germany's militaristic ideology that celebrated war -ex: end of USSR caused by new thinking -ex: War on Terror "constructed" by Bush as response to 9/11 terrorist attacks US foreign policy makers characterize problems overseas in ways that advance their priorities in global politics
