CHAPTER NINETEEN
Foreign Policy

Study

Chapter Summary

·         Foreign policy refers to a government's goals and actions toward actors outside the borders of its territory. These foreign actors may include other countries, multinational corporations, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, or groups that fall outside these categories.

·         Strained relations rather than actual battles marked the Cold War, waged from 1947 to 1989 between the United States and the Soviet Union. The American foreign policy of containment sought to halt the development of communism in all parts of the world. Having achieved that goal, American leaders are still developing a foreign policy for the post–Cold War era and a war on terrorism.

·         There are three types of American foreign policy, each dominated by different actors. Crisis policy requires immediate decision making and is controlled by the president and his national security advisers. Strategic policy (long range) tends to be formulated within the executive branch. Structural defense policy, which deals primarily with defense spending and military bases, is most often crafted by the Defense Department and Congress, which has the ultimate authority when it comes to spending.

·         The American public and its leaders since World War II have embraced internationalism, the active role of a country in global affairs. Internationalists endorse free trade and favor involvement in the United Nations and World Trade Organization. Other actors, whose focus is mostly domestic, advocate both economic protectionism and isolationism from foreign affairs.

·         The United States has three basic foreign policy goals: security of the homeland, economic growth, and support of democracy in the world. However, when these goals conflict, support for democracy often loses out. The anarchical international system and increasing global economic interdependence ensure that security and economic problems will be top priorities.

·         American foreign policy makers use many strategies and tools to create effective policy, including deterrence and compellence strategies and economic tools such as foreign aid and sanctions, political tools such as diplomacy and covert operations, and, when these options fail, military action.

·         Ongoing foreign policy challenges include dealing with the war on terrorism, ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, forming alliances in a post–Cold War world, protecting American interests in a global economy, managing problems without borders (like smuggling and pollution), and balancing pragmatic concerns with the desire to extend democracy throughout the world.

·         Tension may be unavoidable between foreign policy and democracy. Secrecy is usually essential for successful foreign policy; crisis policy in particular requires both surprise and quick decision making. Democracy, on the other hand, demands openness and accountability on the part of public officials.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should understand

·         the nature of foreign policy

·         who makes foreign policy

·         the international and domestic contexts of foreign policy

·         the strategies and instruments of foreign policy

·         American foreign policy in the new century

·         the challenges faced by democratic citizens in a policymaking context where secrecy is often necessary