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Announcements
1. Just a reminder that the papers are due in class
on Thursday.
2. Please fill out your on-line course
evaluations. You should have received an email
with instructions on how to do this. It is a easy,
quick process and I value your input.
3. We have our room assignment for the final
exam: Education 147, 7:25-9:25 p.m. on Friday,
Dec 21. I will provide details on the format of the
exam next week.
In the news
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Fact and fiction on the campaign trail.
Contempt of Congress: Joshua Bolten and
Harriet Miers on their way to the slammer?
Huckabee and Obama surge to the lead in
Iowa.
Karl Rove memo to Obama.
Foreign Policy Making
Context – brief history of American foreign policy.
-- Long standing tension between unilateralism and
isolationism. In 1793, Washington issued a proclamation
proclaiming that the U.S. would be neutral in the war
between France and Britain, and that the U.S. would not
come to the aid of any citizen who got involved. This
was controversial -- if the president cannot “declare
war,” can he declare the absence of war?
-- Monroe Doctrine: inward-looking foreign policy.
Mexican American War.
-- Started to change with WWI, but then return to
isolationist policy, rejection of League of Nations,
punitive treaty that contributed to WWII.
History of foreign policy, cont.
-- WWII, clearly put the U.S. in the position of a world
power. Other world powers were nearly destroyed by
the war.
-- Cold War, 1947-1989. Containment-Korea and Vietnam.
Détente, opening with China negotiations with USSR.
-- Post-Cold War, 1989-current. Economic issues and war
on terror take center stage. U.S. as a declining power?
Paul Kennedy – great powers decline when they
overextend. Economic pressures – external debt and
the collapsing dollar.
WWII deaths
United States
UK
Italy
France
Japan
China
Indo- China
Romania
Greece
Indonesia
Hungary
Yugoslavia
Germany
Latvia
Soviet Union
Lithuania
Poland
Total Pop.
131,028,000
47,760,000
44,394,000
41,700,000
71,380,000
517,568,000
24,600,000
19,934,000
7,222,000
69,435,000
9,129,000
15,400,000
69,623,000
1,995,000
175,500,000
2,575,000
27,007,000
Deaths
418,500
450,400
459,500
562,000
2,680,000
20,000,000
1,000,000
833,000
311,300
4,000,000
580,000
1,027,000
7,503,000
227,000
23,600,000
353,000
5,000,000
% Pop.
0.32%
0.94%
1.04%
1.35%
3.75%
3.86%
4.07%
4.22%
4.31%
5.76%
6.35%
6.67%
10.77%
11.38%
13.44%
13.71%
18.51%
Constitution and War Powers
Constitution gives Congress the power to
 declare war
 raise and support armies and navies
 to “define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the
high seas, and offences against the law of nations.”
 To make rules concerning capture on land and water.
 To make rules for the government and regulation of the land
and naval forces.
 To provide for calling for the militia to execute the laws of the
Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia.
President is commander in chief.
War powers, cont.
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Intent of Framers is very clear
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giving power to declare war to Congress designed to take the
power away from any individual
original language said “make war,” but changed to “declare”
because Congress wasn’t as able to oversee the day-to-day
conduct of the war. Also recognized that the president needed
the power to repel sudden attacks.
Rejection of royal prerogative of war making – quotes from the
Constitutional convention.
Presidents have initiated military action
hundreds of times over history.
Presidential uses of force
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Only five congressionally authorized “wars”: War
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of 1812, Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI, WWII,
Persian Gulf War
Cases of “unauthorized” use of force
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Korea
Vietnam (sort of)
Grenada (1983)
Panama (1989)
Persian Gulf (1993, 1998, 1999)
Iraq (sort of, current)
list goes on
Congressional response
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Congressional reaction to Vietnam, Nixon’s “imperial
presidency,” and erosion of congressional war power
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Nixon expanded U.S. attacks into Cambodia in 1970, despite
congressional restriction that specified that the U.S. was not
committed to its defense
1971: appropriations language stating that the U.S. should end
military operations “at the earliest practicable date”
Congress passed the War Powers Act in 1973:
requires president to consult “in every possible
instance” before sending troops into combat
limits use of troops to 60 days (with a 30 day
extension), unless Congress approves the deployment.
War Powers Act, cont.
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“In the absence of a declaration of war, in any case in
which U.S. armed forces are introduced. . . The
President shall submit within 48 hours a report” detailing
the circumstances, authority, and scope of deployment.
Consensus that the law is probably unconstitutional,
although it has never been tested in court. Presidents go
along with the reporting requirements.
No court likely to intervene in this dispute – political
question.
Conclusive evidence that it has had no effect on
presidential commitments.
Current deadlock between Congress and Bush on Iraq
funding.
Court cases
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Flying fish case (Little v. Barreme, 1804).
Lincoln and the Civil war, Prize Cases (1862). Upheld
Lincoln’s blockade of southern ports.
U.S. v. Curtiss Wright (1936)
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President, acting pursuant to legislative authority, imposed an
embargo on arms shipments to Paraguay and Uruguay during the
Chaco War. Did Congress overstep its constitutional powers by
granting legislative powers to the president?
President has powers in foreign affairs, and certain “extra
constitutional” powers, that would not be recognized in domestic
politics. “The President alone has the power to speak or listen as
a representative of the nation.”
criticized as historically inaccurate and poorly reasoned, but often
cited as support for presidential initiative.
Court cases, cont.
Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) –
Internment of 110,000 Japanese
Americans (mostly citizens) upheld as
valid exercise of military discretion (by
an Executive Order and authorized by
Congress). Dissent held that it was an
obvious violation of the 5th and 14th
amendments, since the exclusion was
based on group membership, not any
specific investigations. Paid
reparations totaling $1.2 billion dollars,
as well as an additional $400 million in
benefits in 1992.
Court cases, cont.
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Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer (1952). Truman overstepped
his bounds in ordering Secretary of Commerce to take control of
steel mills. Claimed inherent, emergency powers, Court rejected this
saying that he President had no power to act except in those cases
expressly or implicitly authorized by the Constitution or an act of
Congress.
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) the Court held that military commissions
set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo
Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and
procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the
four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949.” Current appeal of this
case and Congress’s response: The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005
and Military Commissions Act of 2006 (latter also covered pending
cases). Removed federal court jurisdiction over these cases.
The Two Presidencies
Influence of the president over foreign policy
Aaron Wildavsky – President has many
advantages in foreign policy that he does not
have in Domestic policy. Institutional power is
greater, opponents are weaker, context of FP is
different (stakes are higher), public trusts the
president more in foreign policy.
How to measure? Success rate of getting
president’s agenda through Congress.
The Two Presidencies, cont.
Critiques and extensions of the two presidencies idea.
Peppers – “Intermestic” issues: combination of
domestic and foreign policy.
Shull and LeLoup – finer distinctions: different
areas of domestic policy and high diplomacy, crisis
decision making, and defense policy for foreign policy.
Segilman – major and minor issues
The Two Presidencies – Process. Not just Congress.
The public – is it trust, or lack of interest?
The bureaucracy – does it behave differently in foreign
policy making?
Foreign Policy Making, cont.
Pathologies of foreign policy decision making
Policy advice
Information flow – related to the type of advising process
Groupthink – loss of mental efficiency, sense of reality,
and moral judgment. Comes from too much
cohesiveness, isolation of the decision makers, and
failure to consider alternative points of view. The
“paradox of cohesiveness” – need some, but not too
much.
Implementation: things can go wrong at this stage as
well.
Alternative decision making models
Rational actor – familiar from our earlier discussion of the
rational approach.
Organizational process: factored problems, SOPs,
sequential search (satisficing), organizational goals.
Bureaucratic politics: decision making as an exercise in
bargaining. Choices made not because they are the
best, but because they can be agreed upon.
Applying the framework
Cuban Missile Crisis
Iraq
Evaluating decisions: good process can lead to bad
outcomes.