POLI/INTL 363: Summer 2009

Review Sheet: Exam I

Bill Newmann

This looks big, but don't worry.

            If you have come to class and done all the reading, nothing here should be new to you.

            Also, though there are a lot of terms, obviously, not each one of them is the subject of an essay. These terms, in order, are an outline of everything we've done so far. A group of them might be the subject of an essay, or maybe a comparison between one president's foreign policy and another. Usually, you can't explain a single term without referring to the terms next to it. So, really, if you can say one or two things about each term and how it relates to the terms around it and fits into the larger scheme of US foreign policy you're doing fine. Some terms, however, are filled with enough significance to be short answers/identifications on the test (four or five sentences), but you'll be able to figure out which ones.

Terms with (*) in front of them may not have been included in the lectures, but were discussed, at length, in the readings.

Please, any questions, come to office hours, call me up, whatever.

The exam itself will be 60 minutes long. It will consist of short answer/identifications (choose 3 of 6: 13 points each for 39 points) and an essay (choose 1 of 2: 60 points).  One bonus point for spelling CHINA correctly.

See the syllabus for the list of readings covered by this exam

 

List of terms:

presidential dominance in foreign Policy

congressional powers vs. presidential powers

commander-in-chief

Public Opinion

 

Executive Branch:

organization of departments in a hierarchy

Department of State

Department of Defense

            Secretary of Defense

            civilian control of the military

            Joint Chiefs of Staff

Central Intelligence Agency

Director of National Intelligence

National Security Council

Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Adviser)

National Security Council Staff and its changing role

            reasons why presidents have used NSC staff

difference between NSC and NSC staff

Analytical Model (Rational Policy Model)

            cost-benefit analysis

Organizational Process Model

            organizational interests

            organizational competition     

            standard operating procedures (SOP)

Bureaucratic Politics Model

            individual actors

            Bargaining/compromise

Presidential Management Model

            presidential power to structure the process

            Tools the President uses to manage the process

                        access

            Questions:

                        how decisions are made?

                        who makes decisions?

                        confidence/trust (to whom does the president listen)

 

The Concept of National Interest:

            what are the threats to the US?

            what role should the US take in the world?

Isolationism

Internationalism

            Realism -- power

            Idealism (Liberal Internationalism) -- values, law, interdependence

 

Policies 1789-1945

Monroe Doctrine

Spanish-American War          

            US as a Regional Power

            Western Hemisphere and Pacific Power

WWI

Wilson's internationalism:

            Rejection of Wilsonian internationalism (permanent role in European affairs)

            US "Isolationism" -- a return to being a regional power

US entry into WW II

 

Early Cold War

US post-war acceptance of internationalism

*Republicans (stay a regional power) vs. Democrats (become a global power)

Bipartisan consensus by 1950-52

 

1. Anti-Soviet, Anti-Communist policy

*Truman’s definition of the threat and US role in the world

*Containment

*Greece and Turkey

*Truman Doctrine

The nature of Stalin’s Soviet Union

Soviet economics – command economy

Political freedoms in Soviet Bloc?

*Soviet Bloc achievements 1945-1950

*Division of Europe – Iron Curtain

*NATO vs. Warsaw Pact

*Divided nations

*Spheres of Influence

Cold War as Balance of Power

Premise: Someone will order the international system: US doesn’t want the USSR to do it

 

Explaining the Cold War

Realist explanation

Idealist explanation

            The theory of Communism

            The practice of Communism in the Soviet Union and China

                        Lenin and Stalin

                        Mao Zedong

Constructivist Explanation

Economic Imperialism Explanation

 

2. Free Markets

US hope to spread free market capitalism

US belief that only free markets can guarantee political freedoms

*Premise underneath Marshall Plan – strong economies create strong middle classes who are less likely to believe in Communism

International economic system created by the US

            IMF, World Bank, GATT

US economic system created in 1940s – its relationship to globalization today

Criticism: US only wanted to free markets so its companies had access to cheap land and cheap labor

US response to governments that threatened US economic interests?

Success in N. America, W. Europe, N. E. Asia and some in SE Asia

Less success/controversy in developing world

 

3. Democracy Building

            A. Success in W. Europe and N.E. Asia

            B. Overthrowing democratically elected governments who lean too far to the left economically

                        *Iran 1953 (Eisenhower)

                        *Guatemala 1954 (Eisenhower)

                        *Attempt in Cuba 1961 (Eisenhower Plan; JFK policy)

*Chile 1973 (Nixon)

            C. US support for fascist dictators if they were anti-communist and capitalist

                        But US did push some toward democracy if a chance arrived

                                    1970s-1990s – S. Korea and Taiwan

                                    1986 -- Philippines and Haiti

            D. US semi-alliances with anti-Soviet Communists

                        Yugoslavia and China (after 1969)

 

4. Regional Conflict

Outside spheres of influence

*US-Soviet competition

US and Soviet involvement in civil wars, military coup, revolution

Angola 1970s– civil war becomes part of cold war

*China and Taiwan

Rules of regional conflict

           

5. Multilateralism

Build global order

Use international law, alliances and institutions

UN

NATO

IMF, World Bank, GATT

           

6. Deterrence and Forward Presence

Manhattan Project

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

A-Bomb vs. H-Bomb

Deterrence

            Preventing action

            Using threats

Credibility

*Forward Presence

*Total War vs. Limited War

*Korean War

*Limited war in Korea

*Kim Il Sung

*Korean War

*UN resolution to intervene in Korea

*Collective Security

*MacArthur vs. Truman in Korea

*Escalation and stalemate in Korea

*Bay of Pigs

*Cuban Missile Crisis

 

Viet Nam

Why it is important in US foreign relations

Vietnamese perception: struggle for independence against China, France, Japan, France again, US

Cold war perception: Viet Minh vs. French in anti-communist struggle

1956 division: North vs. South

North Vietnamese insurgent warfare

Early 1960s: South Vietnam collapsing

 

The logic of US intervention

Strategic Logic

            Domino Theory

Domestic Political logic

            Political price of losing a nation to Communism

Political-military logic

Overall dilemma

            Can’t lose; can’t win

            Coercive diplomacy strategy

Result: US war effort under LBJ

            Escalation

Nixon’s War

Withdrawal, but sustained bombing

Implications

1.     Limitations of US power

2.     Nationalism

3.     Ignorance

4.     Use of Force

5.     Domestic Politics

6.     US success?

 

Nixon-Kissinger and Detente:

Nixon-Kissinger Foreign Policy Process

            Centralization of policy process in the White House

            Kissinger's NSC Staff

Kissinger's and Nixon's shared beliefs (realism)

*Kissinger vs. Rogers

New World Environment:

Strategic Parity

            Soviet buildup

*Sino-Soviet Split

            *Mao Zedong

Czechoslovakia 1968 - Prague Spring

            Brezhnev Doctrine and Chinese reaction

Detente as Containment

Detente to change Soviet behavior

            Linkage

Detente as Balance of Power

SALT

Interim Agreement

ABMs and their effect on deterrence

ABM Treaty

 

*Triangular Diplomacy

*Backchannels

*Kissinger's secret trip to China

*US motivations

*The problem of Taiwan

*Shanghai Communique

 

Ford- Carter and the Challenges for Detente  

End of the foreign policy consensus

            New Congressional power

                        War Powers Act

                        Clark Amendment

            Vietnam Syndrome

Carter's hopes for Cabinet government          

Brzezinski's view of the world vs. Vance's view of the world

Brzezinski vs. Vance

            The result

*Human Rights Policy

Exceptions to Human Rights policy

*SALT II

*Iranian revolution and US hostage crisis

            *Ayatollah Khomeini

            *Perception of US weakness

*Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

            Mujahadin

Carter begins to agree with Brzezinski: Arc of Crisis

Centralization of foreign policy in White House

Carter’s new policies:

            SALT II

            Defense Buildup

            Carter Doctrine

            *Rescue Mission

 

Ronald Reagan 

*Reagan's view of the world

Reagan's view of the problems facing the US:

1. Third Wave of Marxism and response

Reagan Doctrine

Offensive strategy

Rollback

2.*Vietnam Syndrome and response

            Libya, Grenada, and Lebanon

            *Israeli Invasion of Lebanon

            *US troops in Beirut

            *October 23, 1983 bombing

            *Hezbollah

3. Decade of Neglect and response

 

Cases:

Afghanistan

Mujahadin

Angola 

Nicaragua

Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)

US Public Opinion

Reagan strategy in Central America

Contras

            William Casey

Boland Amendment Number 2

Reagan response

            private funds

            foreign countries

Purpose of Arms sales to Iran

Arms to Moderates in Iran?

Transfer of Iranian arms deal funds to Contras