chapter 7 - exam 2 foreign policy

Prelude leading to the end of the Cold War

• Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms were rapidly undermining the communists party’s hold in Moscow

• the Baltic states were demanding their independence

• Eastern Europeans were making their way across the iron curtain

Opportunities held by US because of soviet collapse

• With Gorbachev in office America had the perfect opportunity of influence to make sure that the soviet union was completely gone

• Unites state needed to lend its support to the peaceful reform of Russia

Final resolution of cold war relied on the fulfillment of 3 conditions:

1.) Dismantling Joseph Stalin’s empire in central and eastern Europe

2.) detaching Leonid Brezhnev’s outposts in developing countries

3.) Reducing arms and achieving a stable nuclear balance

Problems for Soviet Union post cold war:

• Communist party dismantling - first example is in Poland which became anticommunist in a free election, but remained in Warsaw pact

• Eastern Europe Soviet insecurity

• In Hungary they dropped the word people from the country’s name and the communist party renamed itself to the democratic socialist party

• Czech dropped socialist fro its name

• East Germany socialist party changed its name to have better chance in elections

• Hungary opened it’s borders to Austria. 200,00 east Germans fled their country

• Gorb. killed Brezhnev doctrine - said that socialist countries had no right to intervene on each other’s affairs. This produced the end of the warsa pact as well

• mass demonstrations in Germany lead to the removal of deeply communist leader, travel bans were lifted so thousands scaled the berlin wall, and took it down

Bush during end of cold war

• Bush expressed support for the new governments of Eastern Europe, visited Poland and Hungary

• Gorb. sought a tactic understanding. He would allow the changes in eastern Europe in exchange for the united states not exploiting the geopolitical transformations that was underway in the soviet empire

German problem

Terminal crisis of communism ended division in Germany

Thousand of East Germans poured into West Germany every month

East Germany election won by followers of west German chancellor, ensuring Reunification - made Germany a democracy

Attempted to make Germany neutral by having it join NATO or Warsaw pact, but Germany rejected this

• However 4 months after, Germany joined NATO and this event officially marked soviet surrender

Soviets continued supporting communism in which countries

• Arms shipments to Nicaraguan government

• Arm shipments to Cuba

• These arm shipments reached communist rebels in el salvador who launched attacks on the capital city of San Salvador

• February 1990 election in Nicaragua, communists (sandistas) lost the election

Cuba

• only remaining source of friction between US and Soviet

• Castro swore communism would not leave Cuba

• Soviet discontinued its massive annual subsidies to Cuba, said they would be trade basis only, got rid of soviet training

• Soviet wanted economic aid from US, but US would only if the Soviets stopped providing aid to Cuba (% billion annually)

Reduction in arms to Soviet

• Strategic Arms limitations talks - drastically cut the strategic arsenals of both powers (renamed START strategic arms reduction talks)

• Soviets signed START treaty in exchange for US abides by antiballistic missile treaty

February revolution

• Bc of popular dislike of the communist party Gorbchev allowed opposition parties

• Yeltsin won

• all soviet states claimed sovereignty

Cold war end

After all countries leave, Gorbashev delivered a televised speech declaring the soviet unions end and a new Russia, flag was lowered, soviet union disappeared from map

Elements of Clinton’s foreign policy

• Promoted free trade, signed North American Free Trade agreement (NAFTA)

• Advocated for China’s entry to NAFTA

• Lead NATO intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo to stop ethic cleansing

• nunn lugar Cooperative threat reduction program

• Comprehensive nuclear test ban

• Countered terrorist attacks

• Supported Russia’s transition to democracy under Boris Yeltsin but faces tenins over NATO’s eastward expansion

• Oversaw the inclusion of Poland, Hungarey, and Czech Reublic into NATO

• middle east diplomacy

Context in which Clinton formed his foreign policy

Economic growth tied to interdependence
(competition/competitiveness; exports; jobs; IT revolution)
 Traditionally low capital investment in nonmilitary R&D
 Decline of the American labor force due to lower
educational standards
 Low national savings
 Social & “entitlement” programs (deep historical roots),
but no tax revenues to support it
 Merger mania of the 1980s is just “shuffling of paper”, but
adds next to nothing to economic growth
 Deregulatory issues

Was Robert Reich right? “There is coming ton be no such
thing as an American corporation or an American
industry...The American economy is but a region of the
global economy”
 Can the U.S. economy grow, support domestic programs,
while retain the traditional sphere of influence FP?
 Clinton’s National Economic Council to promote growth
(new partnership between govt. & industry)
 Regional trading blocs (NAFTA, 1994)
 NICSs, East Asian economic “miracle” (corporatism or
neomercantilism?)

Clinton VS. Bush democracy promotion

Clinton - focused on diplomacy, economic engagement, multilateralism to promote democracy. His strategy involved trade agreements, international institutions, humanitarian interventions

Bush - took a more militarized, unilateral approach, particularly after 9/11, using regime change and military force as key tools for spreading democracy, especially in the middle east