The role of the President in foreign policy

Which part of the constitution gives the President the power to negotiate foreign policy?

In article II, the President is the commander of chief of the army, navy and airforce. They can negotiate treaties and appoint key positions such as the director of the CIA.

Who can check the president on foreign policy issues?

Congress can check them by declaring war, having the powers of the purse, approval of nominees, powers of investigation and overused

What else is the president limited by?

Public and media pressure

What was the importance of 9/11 on Bush’s presidency?

• Congress deferred to the president and congress mostly allowed Bush to pass things such as homeland security due to the fact that it was a unified government and Bush had high approval ratings.

• In times of crisis, Congress defers to the president and barely gave oversight

What was Obama’s foreign policy like?

• The Iran Nuclear Deal in 2015 - this created big tensions with congress

• Congress demanded the ability to review the nuclear deal before it was passed as Iran had been a previous enemy of the US

• Congress claimed that Obama didn’t have the authority to lift or renew sanctions on Iran

• The Nuclear deal passed unanimously in the House but Obama did have to submit the details

• Congress’ involvement postponed the deal by 60 days

• The Senate democrats filibustered the deal as they disproved parts of the deal

• Originally Obama said he’d veto the bill but he eventually backed down

How did Obama use his powers of persuasion to deliver his foreign policy?

• Obama addressed Congress from the Rose garden (bully pulpit - powers of persuasion) laying out his belief in the necessity of a US response with air strikes against Syria

• Members of Congress were given classified documents in preparations for a congressional vote - however Obama could do this without Congress

How did Congress assert oversight over the Syria strikes during Obama’s administration?

• Public opinion was against the war and the short election cycle in Congress restricted the options available to the president in this situation

• The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearing on the military intervention and the Secretary of state John Kerry was against putting troops in Syria. The committee eventually approved intervention in Syria (by 10 votes) but Obama felt with it diplomatically

What was Trump’s foreign policy like?

• Hawkish pragmatism - erratic and militaristic

• However he did reshape his relationship with former enemies such as North Korea

• Hawkish strategy by killed Qasem Soleimani (Iranian PM)

• He knows Congress would fight back so he would exclude them in foreign relations

• He withdrew from the Paris agreement

• Muslim travel ban in 2017 and the current ban on 12 other courtiers

What was Biden’s foreign policy like?

• Returned to the previous balance of global power - relations with NATO and Ukraine remained strong

• Re-signed the Paris Agreement but the JCPOA failed to

• His withdrawal from Afghanistan failed due to his poor handling of

• Presidential Drawdown Authority in Ukraine - he sent military hardware there

• In 2022, Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan which impacted relations with China but Biden couldn’t stop this as he had to patronage power to remove her

What was the 2024 US foreign aid package?

A bill would give $61 billion to Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian relief to Gaza. This bill also banned TikTok. It took six months to get it passed.

What was Congress’ role in the Foreign aid package?

• There was resistance from key senators such as Sanders who didn’t want to Israel due to their destruction of Gaza.

• Right wing Republicans, especially from the Freedom Caucus, opposed further aid to Ukraine

• Speaker Mike Johnson suspended the Hastert rule due to the partisanship.

• The bill highlights the strengths and weakness

Why was it difficult for Congress to pass the aid package bill?

Increased polarisation and hyper partisanship have made it politically unattractive to be seen to work with the opposition party

What did the House Rule Committee (which had a GOP majority) do?

They allowed it to reach the floor but it required Democrat votes as GOP voted against Ukraine funding in April 2024