American Foreign Policy Midterm Authors

Mead “The Jacksonian Tradition”

-Seen as hawkish libretarians

-Favor self reliance, see working people as heart of America, require outside respect, individualistic, entreprenurial, courageous

-Government should promote the well being of the Jacksonian community, should answer threats to interests

Braumoeller “The Myth of American Isolationism”

-American isolationism is a myth

-American attempt to create an economic empire, using legal, economic, and military instruments

-Used American economic power to keep Europe secure (keep itself secure)

Waltz “Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power”

-Structural constraints explain why the methods are used despite differences in those that use them

-Balance of power theory only explains wider outcomes, not specific choices

-Trade creates dependence and states strive for self sufficiency

Skowronek “The Politics Presidents Make”

-Power is less of a problem for presidents rather than authority (legitimacy)

-Presidency is order shattering, affirming, and creating

-Most powerful when reconstructing

-Come in to power opposed or affiliated to past regime and come in to a previously vulnerable or resilient regime

Howell and Pevehouse “When Congress Stops Wars”

-Partisan power explains Congressional weakness

-Congress is powerful when it wants to be (when the opposition party to the president rules)

Allison “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis”

-Actions are a consequence of large decision making structure, innumerable actors, and conflicting decisions at multiple levels of the bureaucracy which share only partially compatible goals

-Government behavior outcome of bargaining game

-Where you stand is where you sit

Baum “Sex, Lies, and War”

-Due to entertainment oriented soft news media politically inactive individuals are more likely to be exposed to foreign policy crises as a by-product

-This creates a larger attentive public

-Transform politics into entretainment, potentially democraticizing foreign policy

Dietrich “Interest Groups and Foreign Policy”

-Interest groups set the terms of debates, engage in policy oversight, and supply information/policy analysis

Newhouse “Diplomacy, Inc”

-Increase of lobbyists in DC reflect a decline and privitization of American democracy

-Foreign lobbyists can threaten national security by putting America in difficult situations that could lead to conflict

Kertzer and Zeitoff “A Bottom-Up Theory of Public Opinion and Foreign Policy”

-Public doesn’t just espouse the views of political elites as they have their own principles

-”Common sense” in the mass public is a threat to elite hegemony

-Individuals in groups have their irrationability cancelled out

Holsti “Models of International Relations and Foreign Policy”

-No unified model for international relations due to Levels of Analysis Problem

-Need composites of models that take into account the international system (unipolar, etc)

-Yet also needs to recognize that adding levels of analysis makes it difficult to recognize importance and reduce generalization