U.S. Foreign policy exam

how is public opinion understood

1. through polls/elections

2. demonstrations

3. interest level on topics

4. news coverage

5. looking at different segments of the population

source of public opinion

personal and political beliefs, news media, perceptions of foreign threats

• also group identities

  • physical traits - gender and race

  • social associations

  • political beliefs

constraints to FP by public opinion

1. broad constraints - prez knows the public is watching

2. policy execution - limited by the type of policy and outcomes of said policy

3. domestic affairs - if turmoil at home, FP is seen as an escape for that (Epstein, Lowinski, and Watergate)

4. public climate - if happy and prez is liked then policy will most likely be seen the same way and vise versa.

3 levels of FP individuals in U.S.

1. FP elites - top 1% of individuals like business owners, policy makers, and billionaires that make the decisions on FP.

2. Affluent public - top 15% - these individuals have knowledge on FP issues but lack outlet to make impact on it - this is news media, bureaucrats, advocates

3. Mass public - rest of the people, don’t care much about FP and don’t have knowledge on it, want to leave it to the officials that they believe know best for them

Top 1 percent uses affluant public to get to mass public

6 ways public opinion matters

1. when a interest group lobbies government to make a change to help a group of people

2. when the policy effects all segments of society - gas prices rising

3. timing of the issue

4. the leader at the time of FP decision

5. if the public is angered and not supporting - through protests and demonstrations like Vietnam

6. if the public is in support it is easy to get FP through like in 2003 with the Iraqi war

when does public opinion affect Foreign policy

• times of crisis

• news coverage

• elections

• hot topics

how to explain public opinion

1. when elites and public share characteristics - see eye to eye on basic characteristics like US primacy and national security

2. differing opinions on similar FP issues but changes by situations

3. public controlled or not by former institutions - political views, ideology, religion

why are bureacrateics so powerful in government

1. congressional indifference

2. prez is preoccupied - lets them run free

3. they are experts on specific topics

National security act

NSA act of 1947 created DoD, CIA, and NSC

7 problems W/ bureaucracies

1. pentagon dominance

2. low resources for civilian agencies

3. poor central leadership

4. bad planning

5. bad reporting across agencies

6. bad budget coordination

7. poor congressional oversight

4 complexes of bureaucracies in US FP

1. diplomatic complex

2. security/intelligence complex

3. military complex

4. economic complex

Diplomatic complex

Ran by State department and secretary of state (Marco Rubio)

• job is to advise president - gather information about oversees activities - negotiate with foreign governments - manage U.S. travel - and investigate transnational issues

• tell president what he should focus on - most of FP is a mix of meetings between FSO’s and their counterparts across the globe

Military complex

Department of Defense - ran by Pete Hegseth, oversees all military action and budget

• is the largest department with huge funding - covers all three main branches of military and runs well because of two factors

1. the action of U.S. large military force - lots of bases around the world help with this

2. the second is just the threat of U.S. military action scares countries into behaving

Security and intelligance complex

NSC and NSA - oversee the entire foreign policy process

• agency of policy coordination, NSA is gatekeeper to the president, a neutral agency giving information to prez, and are crisis management

Intelligence complex - made up of 17 loosely connected agencies like (CIA, DIA, FBI) that all collect raw information through different sources (humans, surveillance, and images) and turn it into useful info for policy makers and government.

• also part of counterintelligence and covert operations

• lots of tension between the groups with poor information sharing.

• understanding freind or foe

Economic complex

The economic complex is run by - council on economic affairs, which coordinate all economic activity and provide guidance to the prez in economic issues

• coordinate flow of into to prez, make sure economic policy is good for his plans, and trhey implement the policy

they provide aid to other countries through world bank and IMF

• federal reserve - Jerome Powell

powers of congress in foreign policy

1. ratifying foreign policy decisions

2. overseeing stuff

3. war powers

4. power of the purse = biggest tool

• often focuses on domestic issues instead of foreign bc it impacts their constituents more

constraints to congressional power

1. passing the buck - congress tends to stay out of FP bc prez gets credit so they don’t wanna be blamed if things go bad

2. structural weaknesses - way to large, hard to get things done

3. judicial indifference - supreme court often sides with president and sees them as FP head and soul

4. constituencies service

past NSA people

1. George Bundy

2. w.w. rostow

3. henry kissinger

4. zbisniew birzezsinici

case-zablocki act

1972 - requires prez to report to congress on foreign affairs and action

war powers act

1973 - requires prez to inform congress of want to go to war

nelson Brigham amendment

authorized congress to revise and review sales of arms

intelligence oversight act

1980 gives congress power to oversee inelegancy agencies and specifically covert operations

patriot act

the patriot act allowed the us government ot monitor citizens they believed to be dangerous to public

National Security Advisor

prez chief of staff in FP - in charge of what prez learns everyday - maintains direction of where FP goes

5 acts imporatnt to congressional oversight

1. case zablocki act

2. war powers act

3. nelson brigham amendment

4. intelligance oversight act

5. patriot act