Ch 20 Notes

Ch 20 Notes
Foreign policy is a nations general plan to defend and advance national interests, especially its security against foreign threats
The Protagonist: The President
The Constitution allows the president to deal with other nations in several ways
The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces
The president has the power to make treaties
The president appoints U.S. ambassadors and heads of executive departments
The president receives (or refuses) ambassadors from other countries

Over time the executive has used these provisions, laws, Supreme Court decisions, and precedents created by bold action, to emerge as the leading actor in American foreign policy.

The Protagonist II (and sometimes the Antagonist): Congress
The Constitution mentions the word “foreign” in five places, and all of these are in Article I (which defines the legislative branch)
The Consitution allows Congress to deal with other nations in several ways:
Congress has the power to create legislation
Congress has the power to declare war
Congress has the power to raise revenue and dispense funds
Congress has the power to support, maintain, govern and regulate the army
Congress has the power to call out state militias to repel invasions
Congress has the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations
Congress has the power to define and punish piracy and offenses against the law of nations

Congress has only used its power to declare war five times

Most importantly, Congress uses its power of the purse to provide funds for foreign policy activities it supports, and to prohibit funds for those it opposes

· The senate has specific powers that make it the leading chamber on foreign policy issues
· The senate must give advice and consent to treaties
· The senate must give advice and consent to appointment of ambassadors and other officials involved in foreign policy

The Senate rarely defeats a treaty the president has made (only 21 of thousands have been defeated), but many of those defeats have been historically significant
The Senate vetoed Woodrow Wilson’s treaty to join the League of Nations in 1921
U.S. entrance into the United Nations required Senate approval; despite some isolationist sentiment, the treaty passed.
The most recent rejection occurred in 1999, when the Senate rejected the Comprehensive nuclear Test Ban Treaty

The Power Move: Presidents can avoid Senate treaty rejection by creating foreign policy through executive agreements.
· An executive agreement is a pact between heads of countries and has the legal status of treaties
· They must conform to the Constitution, existing treaties, and the laws of Congress
· Most executive agreements deal with minor issues
· Presidents have occasionally resorted to executive agreements on issues that were unlikely to win Senate consent: NAFTA is a recent example

The Dance of Power: Legislation and Foreign Policy Making Power
Congress has allowed the presidency certain leeway on use of discretionary funds – large sums of money that may be spent on unforeseen needs to further the national interest
Congress has also granted the president transfer authority – allowing him to take money that Congress has approved for one purpose and spend it on something else
As commander-in-chief, the president has authority to commit the armed forces to respond to emergency situations, effectively involving the U.S. in undeclared wars
The War Powers Resolution (passed in response to the Vietnam War) requires the president to consult with Congress in “every possible instance” before involving troops in hostilities
Troops may not stay for more than 60 days without Congressional approval
The actual impact of the law is quite minimal; no president has ever been “punished” for violating its provisions

Making Foreign Policy: Supporting Players
· The Department of State
· The State Dept. helps formulate American policy and then executes and monitors it throughout the world
· The Secretary of State is the highest ranking official in the cabinet, and also (usually) the president’s most important foreign policy adviser
· Despite its size and selectivity in hiring, the State Dept. is often charged with lacking initiative and creativity
· The State Dept. lacks a strong domestic constituency to exert pressure in support of its policies; pluralist politics makes this a serious drawback

The Department of Defense
The Department of Defense (DOD) is charged with promoting unity and coordination among the armed forces and providing the bureaucratic structure needed to manage the peacetime military
The Secretary of Defense is a civilian, and has budgetary power, control of defense research, and the authority to transfer, abolish, reassign, and consolidate functions among the military services
The power wielded by the Secretary of Defense depends upon the Secretary’s own vision and willingness to use the tools available

The National Security Council
· The National Security Council (NSC) is a group of advisers created to help the president mold a coherent approach to foreign policymaking by integrating and coordinating details of domestic, foreign, and military affairs
· The statutory members of the NSC include the president, vice-president, and secretaries of State and Defense
· The role of the NSC varies considerably according to the wishes of the president

The CIA and the Intelligence Community
Before WWII, there was no permanent agency charged with gathering intelligence (information) about the actions and intentions of other nations
The CIA was created during the Cold War, and is charged with collecting, analyzing, evaluating, and circulating intelligence related to national security matters
The intelligence community also includes the Departments of Defense, State, Energy, and Treasury, which also possess intelligence capacities
Most material obtained by the CIA comes from readily available sources, such as statistical abstracts, books, and newspapers
Covert (secret) activities are undertaken are undertaken by the Operations Directorate, and have included espionage, coups, assassination plots, wiretaps, interception of mail, and infiltration of protest groups
Covert operations raise moral and legal questions in a democracy, particularly in the aftermath of the Cold War: when a government engages in actions that people know nothing about, the people cannot hold government accountable for its actions
Post-Cold War issues that concern the intelligence community include terrorism, drug trafficking, nuclear proliferation, and US economic security

Bit Players: Other Parts of the Foreign Policy Bureaucracy
· Globalization has caused the number of players concernec with foreign policy to expand
· The Agency for International Development (AID) oversees aid programs to nations around the world. It works with a full range of other departments and agencies
· The US Information Agency (USIA) provides educational and cultural materials about the United States in over 100 countries
· The US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) promotes, negotiates, and verifies arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament policies
· Many other departments, including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Energy, engage in various foreign policy activities
· An array of government corporations, independent agencies, and quasi-governmental organizations also participate in foreign policymaking. These include the National Endowment for Democracy, the Export-Import Bank, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
· States and localities are also now paying attention to foreign policy; most state governments now have offices charged with promoting export state goods and attracting overseas investment.