American foreign policy making process : executive, congress , intelligence

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American foreign policy making process
executive, congress , intelligence

• Week 7

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Challenge of foreign policy (FP) to state
formation

• FP-making process has evolved through time as the
  republics rise from isolated small power to that
  of a global hegemon.
• FP formulation has been a disjuncture between 1)
  rural/rule-based polity concerned with internal
  expansion 2) modern/utilitarian approach to
  engage with complex world politics.

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Interstate relations and the US Constitution

• In 1787, various elites attempt to wholesale
  revision of the Articles of Confederation (the
  1st constitution) providing a loose central
  governance.
• The Founding Fathers challenge to reverse the
  centrifugal forces of states rights and
  assembly-driven government.

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The Articles of Confederation (1777-1789)
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3 main concerns of the Constitutions architects

• 1) The states civic immaturity to maintain
  internal order or ensure the rights and freedoms
  of their citizens.
• 2) Their sovereighty and behaviour (i.e.pratices
  to protect their own economic activities)
  impending the development of commerce.
• 3) Danger to themselves in the realm of internal
  power politics.

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Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the
United States
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The original copy of the Constitution
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Constitutional Debates and FP

• Centered upon the relationship between states and
  their geopolitical positioning in relation to
  other powers.
• Difficult task of designing a constitution to
  reduce various tensions among states and achieve
  consent.
• Requirement for a complex system of powers,
  reciprocal restraints, and negotiated settlement.

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FP as a primary agency of governmental adaptation

• Initial concern to establish a federal level of
  governance without a sense of FP
  responsibilities.
• Over the course of the republic, however, the FP
  became increasingly recognized as an exceptional
  issue area in the governing responsibilities.
• The requirements of FP as powerful motive in the
  adaptive capacity of the federal government.
• The presidency ( or the executive branch)has
  acted as the chief agency and main beneficiary of
  governmental evolution in response to fp needs.

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Presidental Leadership

• The presidents varying ability to direct the
  policy agenda, shape policy choices, and manage
  and direct activities of the many players,
  agencies, departments, and institutions of the
  government.

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Presidential Leadership

• American President is widely regarded at home
  and abroad as the most powerful individual in
  the world. Why ?
• 1) Commander-in-chief of the worlds most
  powerful military forces and the leader of the
  worlds most advanced economy.
• 2) Political ideas associated with the US
  provides the President additional influence.
• 3) The advantages of the presidential form of
  government allowing the president to respond
  quickly and pragmatically to emergent ( external)
  challenges.

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In the areas of defense and foreign affairs,
the nation must speak with one voice, and only
the president is capable of providing that
voice. President Ronald Regan,1984 I would
welcome the support of the Congress for military
action in Haiti and I would hope that I will
have that. Like my predecessors, I have not
agreed that I was constitutionally mandated to
get it. President Bill Clinton,1994
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Conceptualization of the foreign policy-making
process (R.Hilsman,1967)
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Conceptualization of the foreign policy-making
process (R.Hilsman,1967)

• The Innermost circle The president, his/her
  immediate personal national security advisers,
  important political appointees (i.e.the secretary
  of state and defense, the director of the CIA,
  and various under/assistant secretaries)
• The Second Circle The various departments and
  agencies of the executive branch to provide the
  information.
• The outermost (public ) circle Congress , the
  interest groups, public opinion, and the mass
  media.

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Implication of Hilmans model

• Important decisions involving the fate of the
  nation are made within the innermost circle the
  role and influence of various players involved in
  policy-making declines with their distance from
  the center.

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The US Constitution and Presidential Leadership

• Shaping the presidents role in fp by empowering
  the president to lead, but it also creates
  constraints and challenges to that leadership.
• Does not assign the foreign policy power to any
  branch, but forces them to share responsibility.
• Providing the political branches an invitational
  struggle.

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Constitutional FP power of the President (Art.II
Section 2)

• The President shall be Commander in Chief of the
  Army and Navy of the US, and of the Militia of
  the several States, when called into the actual
  Service of the United StatesHe shall have Power,
  by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,
  to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the
  Senators present concur and he shall nominate,
  and by and with the Advice and Consent of the
  Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public
  Ministers and Consuls.

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The Presidents constitutional foreign policy
power

• The General Executive Powers
• Commander in chief
• Chief negotiator
• Chief diplomat

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The President or the executive branch can make
foreign policy through

• 1) -- responses to foreign events2) --
  proposals for legislation3) -- negotiation of
  international agreements4) -- policy
  statements5) -- policy implementation6) --
  independent action.

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Constitutional Limits on the Presidents FP Power
( evident in Art.I)

• Congress is entrusted with the general
  legislative power, empowering it to make laws and
  appropriate funds.
• Force the president to share its war power with
  the congressional injunctions ( i.e.declare war,
  raise/support army)
• The Presidents diplomatic powers are constrained
  by the Senates role to advise and consent.
• Congress is to regulate commerce and immigration.
  

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Congressional Limits on the Presidents

• All legislative Powers herein granted shall be
  vested in a Congress of the United States.
• Power of Purse grant to Congress.
• Congress is to make all laws necessary and
  proper for carrying into execution the foregoing
  powers.

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Congress can make foreign policy through

• 1) -- resolutions and policy statements2) --
  legislative directives3) -- legislative
  pressure4) -- legislative restrictions/funding
  denials5) -- informal advice6) -- congressional
  oversight.

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Factors Developing the leadership role of the
President

• 1) The Constitutions provisions that have
  combined with practice overtime.
• 2) American role in a changing international
  enviroment.
• 3) The Role of the Courts

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1) The Constitutions provisions-1

• Overtime, combined with practice to expand the
  central role of the president in the formulation
  as well as execution of FP.
• Presidents have taken advantage of their ability
  to act decisively and set the FP bureacracy in
  motion (i.e.concluding treaties/agreements,
  public declarations, deploying military power)
• Presidents have established the precedent of
  presidental leadership.

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1) The Constitutions provisions-2

• Congress has accepted in such exercises of power
  and has even delegated further responsibilities
  to the president (i.e.1921 budget reforms, 1934
  Reciprocal Trade Agreements)
• Growth of executive FP institutions such as
  the DoD , the CIA , and the NSC established in
  1947 National Security Act- gave the president
  even greater tools to take FP actions.

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2) American role in a changing international
enviroment 1

• Further expanded the role and the ability of the
  president to act assertively and decisively in
  the post-WWII period.
• The widely shared consensus ( including the
  Congress) that an active American word role
  required strong presidential leadership was
  needed.
• Due to the requirements of CW FP, the presidents
  policy decisions went largely unchallenged.

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2) American role in a changing international
enviroment 2

• Congress several resolutions providing
  president broad power ( labeled as imperial
  presidency) to deal with external conflict
  situations
• The Vandenberg Resolution (1949)
• The Formosa Strait (1955)
• Middle East (1957)
• Cuban (1962)
• Berlin (1962)
• Gulf of Tonkin (1964)

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3) The Role of the Courts 1

• Generally refrained from involvement in foreign
  policy issues.
• In the case involvement, tendency to support
  presidential claims of authority that has
  solidified the presidents FP making role
  (i.e.the Courts ruling in United States
  v.Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation)
• Furthered presidential leadership with
  nondecision as well through doctrine of political
  question (i.e.El Salvador in 1981, Kuwait in
  1987, the Persian Gulf in 1990)

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3) The Role of the Courts 2

• Several limitations of judicial support,
  arguably weakened the presidency
• Youngtown Sheet and Tube.Co.et.al. v.Sawyer in
  1952.
• New York Times v. United States in 1971.
• US vs. Nixon in 1974.
• The Whitewater affair
• The Paula Jones sexual harassment
• The Monica Lewinsky episode

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3) The Role of the Courts 3

• Since Vietnam, more assertive Congress over
  American commitments and the presidents war
  powers. Several legislative efforts to
  circumscribe her/his authority
• The National Commitments Resolution (1969)
• The Repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
  (1970)
• The Case Act (1972)
• The War Powers Resolution (1973)
• The Clintons assertive multilateralism

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Democratic Dilemmas

• Given the degree to which American politics is
  permeated by its cultural associations with
  democratic principles, FP has highlighted
  several points of tensions, democratic dilemmas.
• Generally sharpened when translated into the
  normative constituents of legislative-executive
  relations over foreign policy issues.

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4 Democratic Dilemmas

1. Democratic diversity/governmental unity
2. Open government/operational secrecy
3. Rule of law/realpolitik
4. Rationality/responsibility

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1) Democratic diversity/governmental unity

• The strain between democratic diversity/civil
  equality and a small enclosed group of experts
  making FP.
• Because international affairs are thought to be
  complex in nature, the subject requires
  high-level of in-debt understanding.
• The higher the stakes, or the closer the
  connection as issue to national security, then it
  more likely that small set of elites making FP.

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2) Open government/operational secrecy

• The drive to confine the domestic parameters to
  engage effectively with diverse centers of powers
  in the outside world.
• Concealment as a regular modus operandi in
  foreign affairs.
• A range of intelligence agencies utilize
  concealment as an instrumental device.
• Contradiction with democracys association with
  open government, transparency, and
  accountability.

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3) Rule of Law/realpolitik

• The unequal relationship between the
  traditionally law-centered ethos of democracy,
  and the international realm in which the rule of
  law has at best a secondary significance.
• FP have been externally driven and adaptive to
  changing conditions free from any strict
  validation process.
• The linkages of democratic authority, consent and
  accountability are more difficult to trace in
  functionally oriented realm of FP.

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4) Rationality/Responsibility

• The disruptive effect that FP can have upon
  democratic governance.
• At times of international crisis, key FP
  decisions were made not only without
  congressional approval, but were designed to
  avoid Congress.
• Profound conflict between rationality
  understood by the President and responsibility
  as seen by Congress.

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• Those who regard political responsibility as
  the highest obligation of democratic leadership
  will argue that the President should have based
  his foreign policies on Congressional and popular
  consent, even if this has meant the
  self-destruction of the nationThose who place
  the highest value on rationality may argue that
  the President has a higher responsibilityto
  pursue foreign policies even if these could not
  be based on popular consent. (Dahl, 1964 180-1)

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New Tensions in the post-9/11 period-1

• Resemblance to previous crises between the
  Congress and the President.
• The presidents usage of the rally around the
  flag effect, the CW apparatus of the national
  security state combined with a homeland security
  society that reached areas previously protected
  civil liberties and constitutional limitations.
• The president was able to secure the accelerated
  passage through compliant Congress of the Patriot
  Act.

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New Tensions in the post-9/11 period-2

• Usage of the issue of international terrorism to
  reaffirm international institutions and
  multilateral process.
• A new form of international coalition building
  that would bypass established processes in favor
  of ad hoc task force.
• The intelligence-led linkage between Iraq, 9/11,
  WMD, and terrorism was clearly evident in the
  congressional resolution authorizing the threat
  posed by the regime of Saddam Hussein.

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Critiques

• Politically manipulating/misrepresenting the
  intelligence for the purposes of mobilizing
  public support and misappropriating the legal
  process relating to decisions over entering into
  a state of war.
• Unilateral power to initiate wars without any
  congressional approval.
• Interpret, terminate,or suspend at its discretion
  (i.e. detention of prisoners without trial at
  Guantanamo placed illegeal combatants beyond
  the scope of the Geneva Convention.

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Detention of prisoners without trial at
Guantanamo placed illegeal combatants beyond
the scope of the Geneva Convention.
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