Foreign Policy
Chapter 18
Foreign Policy
• Foreign Policy
– The mix of military, diplomatic, and
economic policies that define United
States relations with other nations around
the world.
– The policy interests of the United States
in the global community.
Foreign Policy
• Foreign policy includes the techniques
and strategies used to achieve external
goals, as well as the goals themselves.
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Diplomacy
Economic Aid
Technical Assistance
National Security and Defense Policies
Foreign Policy
• Diplomacy
– The peaceful negotiation of economic and
political relationships between different
countries.
Foreign Policy
• Economic Aid
– Assistance to other nations in the form of
grants, loans, or credits to buy the
assisting nation’s products.
Foreign Policy
• Technical Assistance
– The practice of sending experts in such
areas as agriculture, engineering, or
business to aid other nations.
Foreign Policy
• National Security Policy
– Foreign and domestic policy designed to
protect the nation’s independence and
political and economic integrity.
– Policy that is concerned with the safety
and defense of the nation.
– Generally refers to the “less than
peaceful” relations between nation
states.
Foreign Policy
• Defense Policy
– A subset of national security policy
concerning the US Armed Forces.
– Direct the size and scale of the US
military.
Foreign Policy
• American foreign policy exists as a
combination of moral idealism and
political realism.
Foreign Policy
• Moral Idealism
– A philosophy that views nations as
normally willing to cooperate and to agree
on moral standards for conduct.
– “We should come together for peace”
• Political Realism
– A philosophy that views each nation as
acting principally in its own interest.
– “To maintain peace, we must prepare for
war”
Foreign Policy and the
Executive Branch
• The President and Foreign Policy
– Commander in Chief
– Treaties and Executive Agreements
– Other Powers
• Appoint ambassadors
• Recognition of foreign governments
Foreign Policy and the
Executive Branch
• Department of State
– Agency home of diplomats embassies,
treaty negotiators and most foreign aid
programs run by the U.S.
– Supervises US relations with independent
nations and multinational groups
– Secretary of State is the nation’s chief
foreign policy adviser
– Secretary of State: John Kerry
Foreign Policy and the
Executive Branch
• Intelligence Community
– The government agencies that gather
information about the capabilities and
intentions of foreign governments or that
engage in covert actions.
– Consists of about forty agencies, including
the CIA.
Foreign Policy and the
Executive Branch
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
– Cornerstone of the U.S. efforts to gather
and analyze data in order to confront
America’s real and potential enemies.
Foreign Policy and the
Executive Branch
• Department of Defense
– Brings all the actions of the various
military establishments under the control
of a single department headed by a
civilian secretary of defense.
– Largest federal department with
approximately 665,000 employees
– Headquarters is the Pentagon
– Secretary of Defense: Chuck Hagel
Foreign Policy and the
Executive Branch
• The National Security Council
– Consists of the President, Vice President,
Secretaries of State and Defense, Director of
Emergency Planning and sometimes the Director
of the CIA and the Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff
– Advises the President on the integration of
“Domestic, Foreign, and Military policies relating
to the national security”
– Provides policy continuity from one
administration to the next.
Foreign Policy and the
Executive Branch
• Military-Industrial Complex
– The three components (military, industry,
and members of Congress from states that
depend on the arms industry) that
mutually benefit from a high level of
defense spending.
– Often feared by civilians, this shows the
influence that foreign policy can have on
the economy of certain areas.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The Formative Years
– Both Washington and Jefferson were clear
that they wanted to avoid “entangling
alliances.” Because of this, the United
States stayed out of the affairs of Europe
while expanding it’s own territory.
– Relied on the oceans to provide defense
from the rest of the world.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Monroe Doctrine
– Delivered by 5th President James Monroe
in 1823
– Three Principles:
• European nations should not establish new
colonies in the Western Hemisphere
• European nations should not intervene in the
affairs of independent nations of the Western
Hemisphere
• The United States would not interfere in the
affairs of European nations.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The Monroe Doctrine began an era of
isolationism.
• Isolationism
– A policy that states the country should
deliberately avoid a large role in world
affairs and instead concentrate on
domestic concerns.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The Spanish American War was the
United State’s response to Spanish
control over territories in the Western
Hemisphere (and was motivated by a
desire for Cuban independence from
Spain).
• Victory gave the United States control
over Guan, Puerto Rico and the
Philippines, but signaled an end to
Isolationism.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The doctrine of isolationism took
another hit when the United States
entered World War I in response to
German sinking of passenger ships
headed to Britain.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The United States returned to
Isolationism through the 1920s and 30s,
dealing with economic problems at
home, and largely refraining from
entering into the growing conflict in
Europe.
• The policy of isolationism permanently
ended on a “day that will live in
infamy.”
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7th,
1941 signaled the beginning of the
period of internationalism in US foreign
policy.
• Internationalism
– An ideology that emphasizes involving the
country deeply in world affairs.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• This internationalism increased as the
United States entered World War II.
• Following World War II, the Untied
States was the only participating
country to have its economy bolstered
rather than decimated.
• This allowed the United States to help
her allies greatly, through the Marshall
Plan
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Marshall Plan
– Program that provided aid to rebuild
Western European economies after World
War II
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The United States also exited World
War II as the only nation having
Nuclear Weapons, making it the
world’s one true Superpower.
Nuclear Nations (and year of
successful tests)
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United States 1945
Russia 1949
United Kingdom 1952
France 1960
China 1964
India 1974
Pakistan 1998
N Korea 2006
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
– Established in 1949, a military alliance of
the United States and a number of
European Nations that pledged to join
forces against an attack by any external
threat.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Relations with the USSR quickly
deteriorated following World War II.
• Soviet Bloc
– The Soviet Union and the Eastern
European Countries that installed
Communist regimes after World War II and
that were dominated by the Soviet Union.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Iron Curtain
– The term used to describe the division of Europe
between the Soviet bloc and the West; coined by
Winston Churchill.
• Cold war
– The period from the late 1940’s to the late
1980’s in which the United States and Soviet
Union engaged in diplomatic and economic
hostility but not full-fledged war.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Truman Doctrine
– Policy adopted by Harry Truman to halt
Communist expansion in Southeastern
Europe
– A clear message of enacting containment
policy.
• Containment Policy
– A US Diplomatic Policy adopted by the
Truman administration to contain
Communist power within its existing
boundaries.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Though the Cold War was mostly a nonarmed conflict, there are two clear
examples of United States armed
conflict with the Soviet supported
nations, and one example of near
conflict with the USSR itself.
– Korean War
– Vietnam War
– Cuban Missile Crisis
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Korean War
– Northern Korea was occupied by the Soviet
Union, while Southern Korea was occupied by the
United States.
– 1950 – North Korean invades South Korea
prompting the United States (with UN backing) to
enter the war for the South Koreans
– China then entered for the North Koreans,
forcing a stalemate.
– Armistice signed in 1953 – created two
independent Korean Nations which still exist
today.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Vietnam War
– Northern Vietnam (communist) and Southern
Vietnam (pro-west) were in a civil war.
– Two independent Vietnams created in 1954 and
American troops were sent to South Vietnam to
defend Northern Advances.
– 58,000 Americans died and 300,000 were
wounded
– Peace agreement in 1973 allowed US forces to
leave, however by 1975 North Vietnam had
invaded again, capturing South Vietnam and
uniting the country as a communist state.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• We did not have clear goals
• We did not understand the political
aspects
of the war
• We did not understand the nature of
guerilla warfare
• We were impatient with the war and
were unwilling to devote unending
resources to winning it
• We did not have the public support
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Cuban Missile Crisis
– 1962 – Communist Cuba fears American
invasion
– Soviet Union places missiles on the Cuban
coast – 90 miles from American Soil.
– President Kennedy sets up a Naval
Blockade, prompting the Soviets to also
send ships.
– Peace prevails, and negotiates remove
Soviet missiles from Cuba and American
missiles from Turkey.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Détente
– A French word meaning a relaxation of
tensions.
– Characterizes US-Soviet relations as they
developed under President Nixon and
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
– Many reasons for the period of détente,
one of which was deterrence policy
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Deterrence policy
– The idea that nuclear war can be
discouraged if each side in a conflict has
the capacity to destroy the other with
nuclear weapons.
– “Mutually assured destruction”
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
– Treaty between the United States and the
Soviet Union to stabilize the nuclear arms
competition between the two countries.
– Signed in May of 1972
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Fall of the Soviet Union
– Giving into demands for more autonomy
from the republics in the USSR, the soviet
union dissolved in 1991.
– This gave way to a unipolar system.
– Unipolar Power Structure
• A power structure dominated by a single
powerful actor, as in the case of the United
States after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The First Gulf War
– In the most clear cut case of aggression against
an independent nation since World War II,
Saddam Hussein occupied neighbor Kuwait
– American troops (with UN approval) were
dispatched to Kuwait, and drove Hussein into
retreat in a matter of days.
– The cease fire included an agreement that Iraq
would allow UN weapons inspectors to oversee
the dismantling of all medium range misses and
all chemical and nuclear weapon research
facilities.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Multilateralism
– The situation in which nations act
together in response to problems and
crises.
– Because the first Gulf War had UN
support, it is said to have been an act of
multilateralism.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The war on terror
– Sept 11 attacks
• Terrorism
– No accepted international definition
– 3 tenants:
• Violent acts intended to create fear
• Religious, political, or ideological goal
• Deliberately target civilians
• War in Afghanistan (Oct 2001-Present)
– 2 Goals:
• Dismantle Al Qaeda presence
– Many escaped into caves/Pakistan
• Remove Taliban from Power/Capture Osama
Bin Laden
• Bin Laden killed May 2011
– Troops to be removed by the end of 2014
– Deaths of both soldiers and civilians
number in tens of thousands
– US Soldiers: approx 2200 deaths
Preemptive War Doctrine
• The idea that the United States could attack a
potentially threatening nation even if the
threat had not yet reached a serious and
immediate level.
• Also called “Bush Doctrine”
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• The Second Gulf War
– Due to the perceived threat that Iraq
posed, and due to limitations placed on
UN weapons inspectors, US and British
troops invaded Iraq in 2003 (without UN
approval) and within weeks had
dispatched Saddam Hussein from power.
– The problem of rebuilding is the real face
of modern warfare.
A Brief History of US Foreign
Policy
• Unilateralism
– The situation in which one nation takes
action against another state or states.
– Even though some allies were involved,
the lack of other support makes the
Second Gulf War essentially an act of
unilateralism.
North Korean Nukes
• Timeline of interest
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06-07 successful detonation of nuke
07 promises to dismantle program for fuel
07-10 dismantling takes place
2011- Kim Jong Il passes Kim Il Sung takes
over
– 2012 ICBM test
– 2013- Current controversy.
The Economy and Foreign
Policy
• Economic Globalization
– The increased interdependence of
nations’ economies. The change is a
result of technological, transportation,
and communication advances that have
enabled firms to deploy their resources
around the globe.
The Economy and Foreign
Policy
• Multinational Corporations
– Business firms with major operations in
more than one country
– Nearly all large US firms are now
multinational corporations.
The Economy and Foreign
Policy
• Free Trade
– The condition where tariffs and other
barriers to trade between nations are kept
to a minimum
• Protectionism
– The placing of the immediate interests of
domestic producers (through tariffs, for
example) above that of free trade
between nations.
The Economy and Foreign
Policy
• Tariff
– A tax on goods exchanged between
nations.
The Economy and Foreign
Policy
• North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA)
– An agreement signed in 1992 to reduce
tariff and nontariff barriers to trade and
investment among Canada, Mexico and
the United States.
The Economy and Foreign
Policy
• Until recently, the United States
mostly supported free trade. However,
protectionism has gained footing in
recent years:
– Countries getting an advantage through
worker and environmental exploitation
– Unemployment in America