Chapter 17

What are unique challenges in foreign policy?

First, there exists no true world-level authority dictating how the nations of the world should relate to one another. A second challenge for the United States is the widely differing views among countries about the role of government in people's lives. A third, and related, unique challenge for the United States in the foreign policy realm is other countries' varying ideas about the appropriate form of government.

What are international agreements? How do international agreements differ from treaties? Which of the two (agreements or treaties) are there more of?

International agreements run the gamut from bilateral agreements about tariffs to multinational agreements among dozens of countries about the treatment of prisoners of war. Despite that constitutional clarity, today over 90 percent of the international agreements into which the United States enters are not treaties but rather executive agreements. There are more treaties.

Is the Secretary of State nomination approved by the Senate? Who or whom does the President typically nominate?

Most foreign policy-related appointments, such as secretary of state and the various undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, as well as all ambassadors, must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate. Presidents seek to nominate people who know the area to which they're being appointed and who will be loyal to the president rather than to the bureaucracy in which they might work. They also want their nominees to be readily confirmed.

What is one of the primary or chief reasons that Presidents seek out Congressional approval when it comes to foreign policy?

Presidents lead, to be sure, but they must consult with and engage the Congress on many matters of foreign policy. Presidents must also delegate a great deal in foreign policy to the bureaucratic experts in the foreign policy agencies. Not every operation can be run from the West Wing of the White House.

What is the purpose of the UN? NATO?

The UN's main purposes are to maintain peace and security, promote human rights and social progress, and develop friendly relationships among nations. NATO has the goal of protecting the interests of Europe and the West and the assurance of support and defense from partner nations.

What White House Staff members are concerned with Foreign Policy?

The White House staff members engaged in foreign policy are likely to have very regular contact with the president about their work. The national security advisor heads the president's National Security Council, a group of senior-level staff from multiple foreign policy agencies, and is generally the president's top foreign policy advisor. Even more important on intelligence than the CIA director is the director of national intelligence, a position created in the government reorganizations after 9/11, who oversees the entire intelligence community in the U.S. government.

Describe neoconservativism.

The belief that, rather than exercising restraint, the United States should aggressively use its might to promote its values and ideals around the world

Describe containment.

The effort by the United States and Western European allies, begun during the Cold War, to prevent the spread of communism

Define diplomacy. What actions are oftentimes taken to formalize diplomacy?

The establishment and maintenance of a formal relationship between countries.

What is meant by the two presidencies?

The thesis by Wildavsky that there are two distinct presidencies, one for foreign and one for domestic policy, and that presidents are more successful in foreign than domestic policy

What are sharply focused foreign policy outputs?

These sharply focused foreign policy outputs tend to be exclusively the province of the president, including the deployment of troops and/or intelligence agents in a crisis, executive summits between the president and other heads of state on targeted matters of foreign policy, presidential use of military force, and emergency funding measures to deal with foreign policy crises.

What is the purpose of the North American Free Trade Agreement?

This pact removed trade barriers and other transaction costs levied on goods moving between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

What has changed minds in this century with regard to foreign policy?

Two particular events in foreign policy caused many to change their views about the proper approach to U.S. involvement in world affairs. First, the debacle of U.S. involvement in the civil war in Vietnam in the years leading up to 1973 caused many to rethink the country's traditional containment approach to the Cold War. The second factor that changed minds about twenty-first century foreign policy is the rise of elusive new enemies who defy traditional designations.

What Congressional Committees contend with foreign policy? Why might a member of Congress become involved with such committees?

Unless there is a foreign policy crisis, legislators in Congress tend to focus on domestic matters, mainly because there is not much to be gained with their constituents by pursuing foreign policy matters. First, congressional party leaders in the majority and minority parties speak on behalf of their institution and their party on all types of issues, including foreign policy. These members might have military bases within their districts or states and hence have a constituency reason for being interested in foreign policy.

Describe humanitarian aid.

With foreign aid, the United States provides material and economic aid to other countries, especially developing countries, in order to improve their stability and their citizens' quality of life. This type of aid is sometimes called humanitarian aid

Describe the National Security Act, the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act and the War Powers Resolution Act.

he National Security Act governs the way the government shares and stores information, while the Patriot Act (passed immediately after 9/11) clarifies what the government may do in collecting information about people in the name of protecting the country. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 authorized the creation of a massive new federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security, consolidating powers that had been under the jurisdiction of several different agencies. The War Powers Resolution was passed in 1973 by a congressional override of President Richard Nixon's veto. The bill was Congress's attempt to reassert itself in war-making. Congress has the power to declare war, but it had not formally done so since Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II.

Describe liberal internationalism.

A foreign policy approach of becoming proactively engaged in world affairs by cooperating in a community of nations

Describe isolationism.

A foreign policy approach that advocates a nation's staying out of foreign entanglements and keeping to itself

What is foreign policy?

A government's goals in dealing with other countries or regions and the strategy used to achieve them

What does a balance of power mean?

A situation in which no one nation or region is much more powerful militarily than any other in the world

Explain the difference between soft power and hard power.

Diplomatic relations are formalized through the sharing of ambassadors.

What are the objectives of foreign policy?

(1) the protection of the U.S. and its citizens, (2) the maintenance of access to key resources and markets, (3) the preservation of a balance of power in the world, and (4) the protection of human rights and democracy.