GOV F312L Exam 1

What is the international system?

A complex, global aggregation of people, organizations, ideas, rules, and the natural world.

What are the two main components of the international system?

Actors and Structures

Explain the differences between actors and structure in the international system.

Actors: individuals or groups of people with a common purpose or collective identity. Have a goal and understand how their actions will shape other interactions and be evaluated by others (purposive and reflective).

Ex: states, firms, international orgs, political parties or transnational activists.

Structures: the set of properties or arrangements that connect and order the actors in the system

Ex: Formal laws, informal norms that regulate membership, distribution of capabilities, territorial borders

What does it mean to "think systemically?"

To examine how political, economic, and social developments outside the United States shape life inside the United States and its foreign policy choices.

How can structure influence international outcomes?

Constraints: By setting the costs and benefits of a whole range of actions. The fundamental characteristics of the actors stay unchanged.

Constitutes: By altering identity and/or interests of actors

How does structure in the international system constrain behaviors of international actors? Discuss some examples.

It prevents or encourages certain behaviors, such as international economic pressures, sanctions, or treaties

Ex: The Iran Nuclear Accord in which the US, China, France, Germany, UK, and Russia created a structural constraint against Iran because of their combined global military and economic power against Iran

How does structure constitute actors by influencing their identities and interests? Discuss some examples.

The actor and structure are inseparable. Depending on the structure, the existence of the actor and its attributes will change.

Ex: The US Constitution. It is a series of rules that define political relationships within the US.

European collective identity constitutes the interests of political elites and states to strengthen the EU

Define anarchy and describe its significance in international relations.

Anarchy is the absence of a supranational organization that possesses authority over states.

This absence of political authority over states (like in the international system) can shape how they interact with each other. It is more difficult for states to reach and sustain cooperative agreements, like the Iranian nuclear accord

Anarchy threatens cooperation by increasing the challenges associated with enforcing interstate agreements

What is the prisoner's dilemma and how does it illustrate some of the challenges associated with reaching cooperative agreements in international relations?

If both prisoners keep the other safe, they both get less jail time. If both implicate the other, they both get life sentences. If one implicates the other, one gets a life sentence and one gets off scot free.

The game will frequently fail to reach a cooperative agreement that leaves both in a better situation.

There is no way to enforce a cooperative agreement in which they both stay silent.

According to the reading, what are the most prominent actors in the international system? How can these actors be differentiated?

States: Brazil, Canada, France

Great Powers: (Subgroups of states with more economic and military power than others) China, United Kingdom, France

Domestic Groups: Political parties, unions, religious groups, business orgs

International Organizations: UN, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), World Trade Organization (WTO)

Multinational Corporations: Apple, Shell, Chase, Toyota

Transnational Activists and Nongovernmental Orgs: Amnesty International, Doctors without Borders, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Individuals: Xi Jinping, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin

What components of the international system contributed to the completion of the Iran nuclear accord?

When Iran was found to be building a nuclear weapons program, many countries came together to form the Iran Nuclear Accord to essentially threaten it to cease development for at least 10 years in exchange for easing economic sanctions like frozen financial assets and limited oil exports

What components of the international system undermined the Iran nuclear accord?

Trump reinstates sanctions due to distrust of Iran to cease nuclear development (Prisoner's dilemma)

Because of this, Iran's economy badly hurt and other states in complicated situation due to the agreement violation

What is foreign policy?

The strategies and policies of a state that are directed toward actors living outside of its national boundaries.

What are the differences among the beliefs, capabilities, interests, and actions (behavior) of political actors?

Beliefs: Organizing ideas that foreign actors hold of US national interests AND their expectations of future actions by the US Government or its citizens

Capabilities: The relative balance of military power between two political orgs (Barganing leverage and war)

Interests: What states want (territory, weapons, democracies around the world) that shape the scope of political conflict with US

Actions: Using foreign policy to alter behavior of other states

What are the main components of the foreign policy bureaucracy in the United States and what are their main responsibilities?

The Executive Branch: Appointed upper rung of federal bureaucracy tasked with implementing foreign policy

State Department:

- House of diplomats responsible for day-to-day interaction b/w U.S. gov and all other govs

Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff:

- Manages the armed forces of the U.S.

The Treasury Department:

- Manages the coordination of monetary policies between the US and other states

- Cooperate with central banks around the world

Intelligence Agencies:

- Director of National Intelligence (DNI): created after 9/11 to centralize coordination of intelligence agencies

- Shapes beliefs of our leaders regarding what other governments are going to do

National Security Council/Advisor:

- Coordinates activities of all bureaucracies involved in foreign policy-making in the US

- White House staff member, briefs the president

What is national interest?

The broad political, economic, and social goals that motivate the policies pursued by the government of some state relative to all other actors in the international system

Guides and motivates US foreign policy!!

Emerges from and defines collective identity of Americans

According to the Brands reading, The Emerging Biden Doctrine, what is the Biden Doctrine? What are the major threats to U.S. interests according to the Biden Administration? How does the Biden Doctrine seek to address these threats?

Threats: Great power conflict with China and Russia as the primary security threat since they want to undermine international political order

Seeks to unite democracies in an alliance to confront autocracies and protect the liberal international order

How does President Trump see the nature of the security threat presented by terrorism? How does Trump's counter-terrorism strategy differ from President Bush?

Terrorism also the primary security threat

Approach focuses on restricting immigration to prevent potential terrorists from coming to the US

Skeptical of military intervention and regime change which is that the Bush administration used

What is grand strategy? Does it have any relationship with domestic partisanship?

Intellectual architecture or world view that provides the foundation for foreign policy, legitimates foreign policy actions while consciously matching available means with desired ends

Partisanship does not matter much in regards to grand strategy as people from the same political party can have very different grand strategic visions

What are the components of grand strategy? How can they be used to differentiate among varieties of grand strategy?

National Interests:

- regional or global

- Includes content of overarching interests like Containment or democracy promotion

Principal threats facing the United States:

- Geographic threats

- Identity and interests of adversaries

- Interests and threats often linked

Optimal policy instruments:

- Rely on international cooperation? Unilateralism v. multilateralism

- Effectiveness of military force? Or preference for economic sanctions?

What are some of the central policy claims and arguments contained in Obama's West Point Speech? In what ways, is this a statement of Obama's grand strategy?

The US can't solely rely on military power because it can create enemies

Identify terrorism as biggest threat

Critique of Isolationism and Primacy - need to be multilateral because other states are waiting on US to act

What is isolationism?

Reduce foreign interventions and avoid future commitments

What are some historical examples of isolationism?

Washington's Farewell Address:

- Set against wars associated with French Revolution

- Recommend detachment from Europe

Republican successors to Wilson in 1920's

- Rely on private economic influence rather than political-military power

- Tax cuts, limited political involvement in Europe

What is Restraint and what are its primary interests and goals?

Challenging post-Cold War attempts by the US to pursue transformational policies associated with war against terrorism and democracy promotion

- Still interest in prevention of great power war

- Reduce military spending and troop deployments on foreign soil

- Gradually scale back alliance obligations

What are the critiques that advocates of Restraint use against Liberal Institutionalism and Primacy?

- Backlash against US power and interests

- Entangled US in costly, never-ending conflicts involving nationalism and identity

- too tolerant of shirking by allies

- US dispensable to larger global order - should think about role as a first among equals

- Criticize use of military force to promote democracy around the world while rolling back threat posed by terrorism

According to the Ashford reading, what are some of the policy successes associated with Restraint?

- US withdrawing from Afghanistan after 20 years

- Success in reducing U.S. military support for war in Yemen

- Suspension of sales of precision guided munitions to Saudi Arabia

- opening of strategic stability talks with Russia

- Draw-down of U.S. missile and air forces from the middle east

Which domestic groups in the U.S. support foreign policies associated with Restraint?

Trumpian nationalists

Progressive polititians

Offshore balancers

America firsters

What is Liberal Internationalism? What are its main interests and goals?

Use military power and international institutions to pursue a liberal international order

- American threats abroad are global

- Security is collective and achieved through multilateral organizations and alliances

- Security is best achieved in a world based on Western values: free markets, democratic regimes, protecting human rights

- American intervention (with military and economic power) used to establish an American-led liberal international order

What is the main critique of Liberal Internationalism?

It can be too expansive and be perceived as imperialism (rule by an emperor)

What are some historical examples of Liberal Internationalism?

Woodrow Wilson

- Use military force and international relations

- Transform the world and root out traditional European imperial competition and set up a series of national organizations that would eliminate the problem of war

- Security system through League of Nations

- Free trade

- Open navigation of the sea

According to the Ikenberry reading, The Next Liberal Order, what lies at the heart of the crisis of Liberal Internationalism? What should the US do to maintain the liberal international order?

Crisis: The post-World War II liberal order is collapsing

- Leading patrons like US under Trump given up on liberal internationalism

- Relative decline of US hegemony and rise of China brings power competition that has destroyed global institutions

- Liberal internationalism has not delivered on its promises like globalization (people left behind by free trade)

Solution:

- Appreciate the successes of the liberal order and realize that the alternatives are far worse

- Acknowledge the shortcomings of the liberal order and allow states room to accommodate those left behind

- Return to environment for collective security and protection of liberal values

- Renew and strengthen the alliance of liberal democracies

What is Primacy? What are its main interests and goals?

Dedicated to establishing and maintaining American hegemony over the world

- avoid emergence of a strong rival

- american interests abroad are global

- reliance on military power

What is the main critique against Primacy?

Primacy can lead to overreach and isolation

Discuss how the foreign policy of President George W. Bush epitomized a grand strategy of Primacy.

- There was a clear willingness to use military force to promote foreign policy goals (Iraq, Afghanistan)

- Skepticism of international institutions

- Democracy promotion

- Preserve military dominance over peers

- Shock of 9/11 important

What role does democracy promotion play in President Bush's version of Primacy?

Advance security of US by advocating for societies with more human freedom and remove "conditions that inspire blind hatred"

What are some of the principles associated with President Trump's "America First" foreign policy?

- Centrality of economic interests

- Protect homeland

- Promote American prosperity

- Preserve peace by rebuilding the military

- Advance American influence abroad

National Sovereignty!!!

What is neomercantilism and how did it shape U.S. grand strategy during the Trump Administration?

Encourages exports, discourages import, centralizes currency decisions to a central government

- Importance of domestic industry

- Call for protection

- Border restrictions

- Redistribute wealth from world to the US

How did President Trump reorient U.S. participation in multilateral organizations?

- State centric view of the world

- Deep skepticism of international orgs and agreements

- Deep skepticism of globalization

- Immigration restrictions and border control placed within this larger narrative of reasserting sovereignty and resisting globalization

How did the Trump Administration use military tools to implement US foreign policy?

- Resist new troop deployment

- Criticism of prior nation building attempts

- Substantial increases to military spending

How does the grand strategy of the Trump Administration fit into broader grand strategy categories?

Combination of Isolationism and Restraint

- Not Liberal Internationalism: resists globalization

- Not Primacy: no militarism in foreign policy or support for democracy promotion in other places

(invests in military but not over the world or for same reasons as primacy which is democracy promotion)

What are the main goals and assumptions of the emerging Biden doctrine?

- President Biden as a Liberal Internationalist

- Restoring multilateralism

- Leading a coalition of democracies

- Reemergence of great power competition

How does President Biden's foreign policy fit with broader grand strategy categories?

Liberal Internationalism

- make friends around the world

- spread democracy

What are the constitutional foundations of presidential leadership in foreign policy making?

Two articles of the constitution:

- President as commander in chief

- Executive power of president

Framers intended for foreign policy to be a part of the executive powers

(Congress can declare war and raise armies)

How does interagency political competition shape US foreign policy?

Need to coordinate all executive branch agencies

- Decisions about how to implement policy can alter the policy itself

- State Department, Defense Department, CIA, NDI, NSA, Treasury

- Failed coordination with similar interests leads to mixed messages in runup to First Persian Gulf war which undermines diplomacy and contributes to failure to deter Saddam's invasion of Kuwait

- Driving on the right side of the road is successful rule

When agencies have opposing interests

- President to pick winners and losers

- Who gets invited to meetings matters

- Ex: Post-invasion stabilization in Iraq

- State dept set up agency

- Deferred to Defense instead because security central

- State dept work essentially lost

- Suggest Iraqis desire freedom and democracy rather than internal security and employment

- cause chaos and resentment

When domestic incentives creep in to shape policy recommendations

- maximize power held by that specific agency

- when agencies spend resources at the end of year to get more the next year

- During cold war, Air force wants to increase air power to strengthen influence rather than Army

Does war expand presidential authority? How do the different constituencies of the President versus members of Congress affect this dynamic?

Yes, and not only in prosecution of the war, but also in domestic policy matters because congress votes closer to presidential preferences or policy goals

Different constituencies generate different composition of societal interests to represent. President has larger constituency while congress is narrower and more concentrated on left or right

President serves national, congress serves regional (conflict)

President has more info, so congress relies on them to make decisions

What is an Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF)?

A resolution where congress authorized the president to use all necessary and appropriate force against those responsible for 9/11 in 2001

Also in 2002 to use the armed forces against Iraq

According to the Golan-Viella reading, what are some of the legal and political challenges created by the 2001 AUMF that justified military force against Al Qaeda and the continued use of the 2001 AUMF as the legal basis to use military force against ISIS?

Obama argues that ISIS is a successor organization to Al Qaeda

Refused to tell the public the names considered to be under the 2001 AUMF and is just "associated forces"

No clarification on what is covered under an AUMF and what can be done without one

What are some of the controversies associated with using executive orders in the implementation of foreign policy, particularly over immigration?

What political challenges encourage the President to pursue such a policy strategy?

How does the battle over immigration policy illustrate tensions between the executive and legislative branches?

Obama's 2014 executive order to provide temporary legal status to 5mil undocumented immigrants was blocked by states arguing that he overstepped his authority

Trump's executive action to restrict immigration from certain Muslim majority countries deemed to have high levels of terrorist activity blocked in court because they were unconstitutional for discriminating based on religion

Supreme Court did uphold Trump's travel ban

- Biden rescinds this order as one of his first acts

According to the Goldgeier and Saunders reading, how have constraints on presidential authority in foreign policy eroded and what factors have caused this erosion?

It seems like the president can do what they want with little real pushback, despite outrage

- Congress unable to block Trump from starting a trade war with China and U.S. allies

- Have eroded by not being put into practice

- Declining foreign policy expertise

- increasing political polarization

- Bureaucracy lost incentive to cultivate expertise

What role does the Constitution designate for Congress in foreign policy?

They can declare war, raise and support armies, and use the senate to make treaties with 2/3 senate approval

What is the War Powers Act?

A law that intends to rebalance the powers of President and Congress by requiring authorization from congress when going into hostilities or situations where involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated

How has the War Powers Act changed the balance of power over foreign policy between the executive and legislative branches?

Important role for rules that structure how two individuals or groups with contending interests reach a collective choice

How does Congress shape foreign policy?

Congress has additional authority through its appropriation and oversight functions

- Can limit or embolden presidential action

- Congress can cut or increase foreign aid or the budget for a defense project

- It can set restrictions on the length of time American troops are deployed during an international crisis by refusing to pay for them beyond a certain date

What is partisanship?

Ideological identification of politician, generally thought of in terms of a left-right continuum

How does partisanship affect congressional action on foreign policy?

Republicans are tougher on foreign policy than Democrats, although rise of isolationism changing this

Congress is more active in checking presidential initiative in foreign policy when we have divided party (President's party does not hold both chambers of congress)

Describe some examples of congressional oversight over foreign policy.

- Call more hearings (provide public forum to criticize president)

- Engage in public criticism

- Pass legislation that restricts Presidential action

- Set conditions on spending bills to implement policy

What is divided government? How does it influence foreign policy?

When the President's party does not hold both chambers of Congress

- generates greater Congressional oversight of foreign policy including decisions to use military force

- electoral incentives to increase when opposing party controls White House

- President more likely to share info with own party, so the opposition increases oversight

- President less likely to engage in military force as opposition gets more seats in congress

How does Congress shape public opinion over foreign policy?

- Public criticism of president through hearings or access to media

- Open congressional committee meetings on some element of foreign policy

- Agenda setting: Public criticism of president can also shape opinion of president by altering how media covers

Identify the principal components of the Weissman argument about the role of Congress in shaping the use of military force.

What examples does he cite as illustrating Congressional failure to uphold its constitutional responsibility with respect to the use of military force?

Critique on congressional inactivity on decisions to use military force

- Shift with 9/11: more congressional deference to President

Ex of failures:

- Libya: Spend thousands of hours on partisan investigations of murders of U.S. officials with no decision on the military intervention that brought them there

- Syria: no debate over U.S. policy in the civil war there and still no vote on authorized use of force

According to the McKeon and Tess reading, how might Congress reassert its role in foreign policy?

On trade: limit or revoke president's authority to enact retaliatory tariffs or allow Congress to reject proposed tariffs

On use of force: Put new AUMFs into place

- Public oversight through hearings

- Legislation over budget

How does the model of a two-level game help us understand how domestic political factors can shape the content of US foreign policy?

Two levels: International (between states) and Domestic (US gov and actors that help define US national interests like Congress, Pentagon, protestors, economic interests)

- If government fails to maintain domestic political support for foreign policy, they may be removed from office

- Domestic groups provide resources like tax revenues for foreign policy

Absence of domestic political support can lead officials to scale back foreign policy position (more neutral) to appeal to more of the public

What are some of the domestic nonstate groups that can influence US foreign policy? What are their foreign policy interests?

Interest groups: held together by shared support for set of political, economic, or social goals

- Ex: Human rights orgs support aid for refugees and political prisoners

Economic firms: trade policies like for higher levels of defense spending by the state to enhance their own business opportunities

- Ex: Export firms support trade policies that reduce barriers

Media: can transmit info to broader public that can influence content of its foreign policy interests

Political parties: threaten to withhold political benefits from members to pressure to support their policies

- Ex: in democracies, pressure members by threatening to without future financial support

Individuals: differ in interests based on religion, race, ethnicity, gender, class, etc

- Ex: Christians want foreign aid, support religious liberty in other countries, promote democracy abroad

How do domestic institutions influence foreign policy decisions by mediating political conflict and bargaining among different domestic groups?

Institutions structure how individuals and groups interact within a system.

- reach a collective decision when individuals disagree over policies a group should pursue

- regulates political comp. within the state and among officials in state like with war powers act

- the constitution

- forces domestic groups to follow constitutional rules/laws that mediate conflict and have equal checks and balances

What is the "rally around the flag" effect?

The tendency for the public to rally behind the president and the cause of war at times of perceived crisis

What is "war fatigue"?

The tendency for public support for American military intervention to decline over time

What does it mean to describe the American public as "casualty-phobic?"

As casualties mount, support decreases

- Ex: Korean, Vietnam, Iraq wars

- Long-term apprehension about future use of military force

What is a public good?

Something that is nonrivalrous and nonexcludable

- the public benefits from it and it is provided to all people of the public without profit

What is the free rider problem and how does it relate to the provision of public goods?

Lobbying is undersupplied because individuals don't want to pay its costs (like a campaign contribution) and still reap the benefits

- assume since other people put in the effort, they as an individual don't need to

How does the free rider problem relate to foreign policy and the provision of something like national defense?

People who don't pay taxes still get the benefit of defense thanks to other people who have to carry their weight

How do special interest lobbying groups solve the free rider problem?

Having taxes filed opens eligibility for things like FAFSA, and there is a tax return incentive for doing so

Incentives prompt people to file taxes not just for country but also individual benefits

How have powerful economic interests captured state power and fashioned economic trade policy to further their interests through the Open Door policies of the 19th century?

Open door: Equal access for all firms in global economy to a market - access for American businesses to external markets to sell their products and cheap raw materials and labor

Ex:

- US 1890's: Caribbean and Philippines

- Wilson fights to undermine European empires

- Post WWII

- US fosters German economic recovery

- Force British to stop limiting access to their Empire

- Persian Gulf War: Bush concerned that Iraq's control of oil could wreak havoc on economy