foreign policy assignment answer key

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Course info.

• Prof. Stephen Van Evera

Departments

• Political Science

As Taught In

• American Politics
• International Relations
• Military Studies
• Public Policy

Learning Resource Types

American foreign policy: past, present, and future, second paper assignment.

Write a short paper that evaluates a U.S. foreign policy (to include a broad U.S. policy, strategy, or doctrine, or a specific U.S. decision); or a foreign policy idea that was suggested but not adopted.

In your evaluation you can (1) describe and evaluate the key factual and theoretical beliefs that motivated the policy. Were these beliefs true or false?

And / or you can (2) describe and assess the consequences of the policy (if you assess a policy that was adopted); or the consequences that probably would have followed if the policy had been adopted (if you assess an unadopted policy idea). Were these consequences good or bad for the U.S.? Were they good or bad for other states? Were they desired or undesired by U.S. policymakers?

And / or you can (3) assess whether the process by which the policy was decided was good or bad. Were alternative policies considered? Was relevant evidence marshalled and examined in a systematic fashion? Overall, did the policy making process follow the rules of science? Was it “rational-legal”?

In asking if the consequences of the policy were good or bad, you can assess the policy against a pragmatic standard (“the policy improved US national security”) or a moral standard (“the policy violated universal human rights”), or both.

If the evidence available in the assigned readings is too thin to allow you to fully evaluate the policy or policy element that you have chosen to discuss, please say so and describe the information that you would need to perform a more thorough evaluation. Alternately, you can consult works listed in the ‘‘Further Readings’’ pdf, which can be found in the Readings section, or you can ask your TA for suggestions on further reading. (Extra reading is not mandatory but we encourage it if your paper seems to call for it.)

Examples of policies you might evaluate:

• U.S. foreign policies in the interwar years (1919–1941).
• The U.S. decision to pursue Containment (1947).
• The policy of rollback against the USSR that was suggested by some during 1949–1954 but not adopted.
• The national security policies’ of the Eisenhower Administration (1953–1961). (Note: ‘‘National security policy’’ refers to policies to protect national sovereignty and physical safety; these include national grand strategy, general military policy, and more specific foreign policies.)
• U.S. policies in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
• The 1965 U.S. decision to send large ground forces to Vietnam.
• Other U.S. policies in Vietnam/Indochina, 1945–1975.
• Any other U.S. intervention in the Third World, e.g., the 1954 CIA coup in Guatemala.
• The 2001–present War on Terror.
• The 2003 Iraq war.

Your paper should be about eight typed double-spaced pages, with normal 1" margins and normal-size typeface.

Start your paper with a short summary introduction that states your guestion(s) and distills your answer(s) . And offer a conclusion.

Your paper is due at the beginning of Session 23.

Your TA will give you feedback on a draft of your paper if you submit a draft a week before you submit your final paper. You must do this for one of your two papers. You are wise to do it for both papers.

You are leaving MIT OpenCourseWare

17.2 Foreign Policy Instruments

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the outputs of broadly focused U.S. foreign policy
• Describe the outputs of sharply focused U.S. foreign policy
• Analyze the role of Congress in foreign policy

The decisions or outputs of U.S. foreign policy vary from presidential directives about conducting drone strikes to the size of the overall foreign relations budget passed by Congress, and from presidential summits with other heads of state to U.S. views of new policies considered in the UN Security Council. In this section, we consider the outputs of foreign policy produced by the U.S. government, beginning with broadly focused decisions and then discussing more sharply focused strategies. Drawing this distinction brings some clarity to the array of different policy outcomes in foreign policy. Broadly focused decisions typically take longer to formalize, bring in more actors in the United States and abroad, require more resources to carry out, are harder to reverse, and hence tend to have a lasting impact. Sharply focused outputs tend to be processed quickly, are often unilateral moves by the president, have a shorter time horizon, are easier for subsequent decision-makers to reverse, and hence do not usually have so lasting an impact as broadly focused foreign policy outputs.

BROADLY FOCUSED FOREIGN POLICY OUTPUTS

Broadly focused foreign policy outputs not only span multiple topics and organizations, but they also typically require large-scale spending and take longer to implement than sharply focused outputs. In the realm of broadly focused outputs, we will consider public laws, the periodic reauthorization of the foreign policy agencies, the foreign policy budget, international agreements, and the appointment process for new executive officials and ambassadors.

Public Laws

When we talk about new laws enacted by Congress and the president, we are referring to public laws . Public laws, sometimes called statutes, are policies that affect more than a single individual. All policies enacted by Congress and the president are public laws, except for a few dozen each year. They differ from private laws , which require some sort of action or payment by a specific individual or individuals named in the law.

Many statutes affect what the government can do in the foreign policy realm, including the National Security Act , the Patriot Act , the Homeland Security Act , and the War Powers Resolution . The National Security Act governs the way the government shares and stores information, while the Patriot Act (passed immediately after 9/11) clarifies what the government may do in collecting information about people in the name of protecting the country. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 authorized the creation of a massive new federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security, consolidating powers that had been under the jurisdiction of several different agencies. Their earlier lack of coordination may have prevented the United States from recognizing warning signs of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The War Powers Resolution was passed in 1973 by a congressional override of President Richard Nixon’s veto. The bill was Congress’s attempt to reassert itself in war-making. Congress has the power to declare war, but it had not formally done so since Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. Yet the United States had entered several wars since that time, including in Korea, in Vietnam, and in focused military campaigns such as the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The War Powers Resolution created a new series of steps to be followed by presidents in waging military conflict with other countries.

Its main feature was a requirement that presidents get approval from Congress to continue any military campaign beyond sixty days. To many, however, the overall effect was actually to strengthen the role of the president in war-making. After all, the law clarified that presidents could act on their own for sixty days before getting authorization from Congress to continue, and many smaller-scale conflicts are over within sixty days. Before the War Powers Resolution, the first approval for war was supposed to come from Congress. In theory, Congress, with its constitutional war powers, could act to reverse the actions of a president once the sixty days have passed. However, a clear disagreement between Congress and the president, especially once an initiative has begun and there is a “rally around the flag” effect, is relatively rare. More likely are tough questions about the campaign to which continuing congressional funding is tied.

Reauthorization

All federal agencies, including those dedicated to foreign policy, face reauthorization every three to five years. If not reauthorized, agencies lose their legal standing and the ability to spend federal funds to carry out programs. Agencies typically are reauthorized, because they coordinate carefully with presidential and congressional staff to get their affairs in order when the time comes. However, the reauthorization requirements do create a regular conversation between the agency and its political principals about how well it is functioning and what could be improved.

The federal budget process is an important annual tradition that affects all areas of foreign policy. The foreign policy and defense budgets are part of the discretionary budget, or the section of the national budget that Congress vets and decides on each year. Foreign policy leaders in the executive and legislative branches must advocate for funding from this budget, and while foreign policy budgets are usually renewed, there are enough proposed changes each year to make things interesting. In addition to new agencies, new cross-national projects are proposed each year to add to infrastructure and increase or improve foreign aid, intelligence, and national security technology.

International agreements represent another of the broad-based foreign policy instruments. The United States finds it useful to enter into international agreements with other countries for a variety of reasons and on a variety of different subjects. These agreements run the gamut from bilateral agreements about tariffs to multinational agreements among dozens of countries about the treatment of prisoners of war. One recent multinational pact was the seven-country Iran Nuclear Agreement in 2015, intended to limit nuclear development in Iran in exchange for the lifting of long-standing economic sanctions on that country ( Figure 17.7 ).

The format that an international agreement takes has been the point of considerable discussion in recent years. The U.S. Constitution outlines the treaty process in Article II . The president negotiates a treaty, the Senate consents to the treaty by a two-thirds vote, and finally the president ratifies it. Despite that constitutional clarity, today over 90 percent of the international agreements into which the United States enters are not treaties but rather executive agreements. 8 Executive agreements are negotiated by the president, and in the case of sole executive agreement s , they are simultaneously approved by the president as well. On the other hand, congressional-executive agreement s , like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), are negotiated by the president and then approved by a simple majority of the House and Senate (rather than a two-thirds vote in the Senate as is the case for a treaty). In the key case of United States v. Pink (1942), the Supreme Court ruled that executive agreements were legally equivalent to treaties provided they did not alter federal law. 9 Most executive agreements are not of major importance and do not spark controversy, while some, like the Iran Nuclear Agreement, generate considerable debate. Many in the Senate thought the Iran deal should have been completed as a treaty rather than as a sole executive agreement.

Finding a Middle Ground

Treaty or executive agreement.

Should new international agreements into which the United States enters be forged through the Article II treaty process of the U.S. Constitution, or through executive agreements? This question arose again in 2015 as the Iran Nuclear Agreement was being completed. That pact required Iran to halt further nuclear development and agree to nuclear inspections, while the United States and five other signatories lifted long-standing economic sanctions on Iran. The debate over whether the United States should have entered the agreement and whether it should have been a treaty rather than an executive agreement was conducted in the news media and on political comedy shows like The Daily Show .

Your view on the form of the pact will depend on how you see executive agreements being employed. Do presidents use them to circumvent the Senate (as the “evasion hypothesis” suggests)? Or are they an efficient tool that saves the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations the work of processing hundreds of agreements each year?

Politicians’ opinions about the form of the Iran Nuclear Agreement fell along party lines. Democrats accepted the president’s decision to use an executive agreement to finalize the pact, which they tended to support. Republicans, who were overwhelmingly against the pact, favored the use of the treaty process, which would have allowed them to vote the deal down. In the end, the president used an executive agreement and the pact was enacted. The downside is that an executive agreement can be reversed by the next president. Treaties are much more difficult to undo because they require a new process to be undertaken in the Senate in order for the president to gain approval.

Which approach do you favor for the Iran Nuclear Agreement, an executive agreement or a treaty? Why?

Link to Learning

Watch “Under Miner” and “Start Wars” to see the take of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show on the Iran Nuclear Agreement.

Appointments

The last broad type of foreign policy output consists of the foreign policy appointments made when a new president takes office. Typically, when the party in the White House changes, more new appointments are made than when the party does not change, because the incoming president wants to put in place people who share the president's agenda. This has been the case in every presidential transition since 1993, when Republican George H.W. Bush left office and Democrat Bill Clinton took over. The pattern continued in 2001 when Republican George W. Bush became president, and then again with Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Donald Trump, and Democrat Joe Biden.

Most foreign policy–related appointments, such as secretary of state and the various undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, as well as all ambassadors, must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate ( Figure 17.8 ). Presidents seek to nominate people who know the area to which they’re being appointed and who will be loyal to the president rather than to the bureaucracy in which they might work. They also want their nominees to be readily confirmed. As we will see in more detail later in the chapter, an isolationist group of appointees will run the country’s foreign policy agencies very differently than a group that is more internationalist in its outlook. Isolationists might seek to pull back from foreign policy involvement around the globe, while internationalists would go in the other direction, toward more involvement and toward acting in conjunction with other countries.

SHARPLY FOCUSED FOREIGN POLICY OUTPUTS

In addition to the broad-based foreign policy outputs above, which are president-led with some involvement from Congress, many other decisions need to be made. These sharply focused foreign policy outputs tend to be exclusively the province of the president, including the deployment of troops and/or intelligence agents in a crisis, executive summits between the president and other heads of state on targeted matters of foreign policy, presidential use of military force, and emergency funding measures to deal with foreign policy crises. These measures of foreign policy are more quickly enacted and demonstrate the “energy and dispatch” that Alexander Hamilton , writing in the Federalist Papers , saw as inherent in the institution of the presidency. Emergency spending does involve Congress through its power of the purse, but Congress tends to give presidents what they need to deal with emergencies. That said, the framers were consistent in wanting checks and balances sprinkled throughout the Constitution, including in the area of foreign policy and war powers. Hence, Congress has several roles, as discussed at points throughout this chapter.

Perhaps the most famous foreign policy emergency was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. With the Soviet Union placing nuclear missiles in Cuba, just a few hundred miles from Florida, a Cold War standoff with the United States escalated. The Soviets at first denied the existence of the missiles, but U.S. reconnaissance flights proved they were there, gathering photographic evidence that was presented at the UN ( Figure 17.9 ). The Soviets stood firm, and U.S. foreign policy leaders debated their approach. Some in the military were pushing for aggressive action to take out the missiles and the installation in Cuba, while State Department officials favored a diplomatic route. President John F. Kennedy ended up taking the recommendation of a special committee, and the United States implemented a naval blockade of Cuba that subtly forced the Soviets’ hands. The Soviets agreed to remove their Cuban missiles and the United States in turn agreed six months later to remove its missiles from Turkey.

Listen to President Kennedy’s speech announcing the naval blockade the United States imposed on Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Another form of focused foreign policy output is the presidential summit . Often held at the Presidential Retreat at Camp David, Maryland, these meetings bring together the president and one or more other heads of state. Presidents use these types of summits when they and their visitors need to dive deeply into important issues that are not quickly solved. An example is the 1978 summit that led to the Camp David Accords, in which President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat, and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin met privately for twelve days at Camp David negotiating a peace process for the two countries, which had been at odds with each other in the Middle East. Another example is the Malta Summit between President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which took place on the island of Malta over two days in December 1989 ( Figure 17.10 ). The meetings were an important symbol of the end of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall having come down just a few months earlier.

Another focused foreign policy output is the military use of force . Since the 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks and the immediate declaration of war by Congress that resulted, all such initial uses of force have been authorized by the president. Congress in many cases has subsequently supported additional military action, but the president has been the instigator. While there has sometimes been criticism, Congress has never acted to reverse presidential action. As discussed above, the War Powers Resolution clarified that the first step in the use of force was the president’s, for the first sixty days. A recent example of the military use of force was the U.S. role in enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya in 2011, which included kinetic strikes—or active engagement of the enemy—to protect anti-government forces on the ground. U.S. fighter jets flew out of Aviano Air Base in northern Italy ( Figure 17.11 ).

The final example of a focused foreign policy input is the passage of an emergency funding measure for a specific national security task. Congress tends to pass at least one emergency spending measure per year, which must be signed by the president to take effect, and it often provides funding for domestic disasters. However, at times foreign policy matters drive an emergency spending measure, as was the case right after the 9/11 attacks. In such a case, the president or the administration proposes particular amounts for emergency foreign policy plans.

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Lesson Plan: Goals of U.S. Foreign Policy

Secretary of State Blinken on Promoting Democracy around the World

Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed U.S. foreign policy goal of strengthening and promoting democracy around the world and at home.

Description

This lesson has students explore the goals of U.S foreign policy by examining how the U.S. provides national security, encourages international trade, fosters world peace, and promotes democracy and human rights. Students will define these goals, identify challenges and tools to achieve them, and apply what they learned to current foreign policy issues. Students will use this knowledge to determine which foreign policy goals the United States should prioritize and how those goals should be achieved.

This lesson offers several options for you to use with your students whether you are teaching in class, using a hybrid model, or engaging through distance learning. It can be completed in steps as a class or independently by students.

Each activity, video and handout included in the lesson can be linked to an online discussion board or learning management system. You can also save and share the following Google handout for students to use with this lesson.

Handout: U.S. Foreign Policy Goals (Google Doc)

By making a copy of this Google Doc, you can adjust the instructions to meet the needs of your class and provide that copy to your students. Your students can also make a copy and complete the assignments digitally in the space provided.

WARM-UP AND INTRODUCTION:

To introduce the topic of foreign policy, have the students brainstorm answers to the following questions. Engage the students in a discussion about foreign policy and address any misconceptions that students might have. Have students keep a running list of questions that they have about the goals of foreign policy.

What is meant by foreign policy?

What are examples of foreign policy?

Why does the United States engage with other countries?

• What questions do you have about foreign policy?

EXPLORATION:

After reviewing the warm-up activity, share the handout with the students and have them view each of the video clips highlighting a foreign policy goal.

For each foreign policy goal students will use the note-taking chart to provide the following information:

Summary of this Foreign Policy Goal

Challenges and Obstacles to Achieving this Goal

Ways to Accomplish this Foreign Policy Goal

• Keywords Associated with this Goal

VIDEOS: FOREIGN POLICY GOALS

Video Clip 1: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights (3:53)

Video Clip 2: National Security (3:18)

Video Clip 3: International Trade (3:10)

• Video Clip 4: World Peace (2:48)

Have students share their responses from the introduction activity. Address any misconceptions that students might have about the goals for U.S. foreign policy.

Students will practice what they learned about the U.S. foreign policy goals by viewing examples of current international issues impacting the United States. Depending on the set-up of the classroom, these videos can be show to the entire class or accessed by individual students using the links below.

For each example, students will answer the following questions:

Which goal (or goals) is addressed in the clip? What evidence supports this?

• What actions are being discussed to achieve this goal?

VIDEOS: FOREIGN POLICY EXAMPLES:

Video Clip 5: Secretary of Defense Esper on National Defense Strategy (3:17)

Video Clip 6: Acting USAID Assistant Administrator Freeman on Foreign Aid in Afghanistan (4:00)

Video Clip 7: Sen. Sullivan (R-AK) on Chinese Sanctions and Alliances (3:36)

Video Clip 8: Former Secretary of State Pompeo on Diplomacy with North Korea (2:10)

• Video Clip 9: Manufacturing and Trade Policy (3:25)

APPLICATION:

Review the answers with the students and discuss their interpretations of these examples.

Based of the information from the video clips, have them respond to the prompt below. This can be done as a written assignment, think-pair-share activity, debate, or class discussion. Activities from the C-SPAN Classroom Deliberation site can also be used to engage students.

• What is the most important foreign policy goal for the United States? What actions can the United States take to achieve this goal?

To review the concepts in the lesson, have the students revisit two of the questions from the warm-up activity. Students can answer these questions as an exit slip or other formative assessment.

• What questions do you still have about foreign policy?

EXTENSION/ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITIES:

Ranking America’s Foreign Policy Goals- Rank the goals of foreign policy from most important to least important. For each goal, use examples to explain why that goal is ranked in that position.

C-SPAN Video Library Search- Using the C-SPAN Video Library , search for a video of a recent example of the president or Congress speaking about foreign policy. After viewing the video, summarize what is being discussed, identify the foreign policy goal (goals) and explain what actions can be taken to achieve this goal (goals).

ADDITIONAL PROMPTS:

How are these foreign policy goals interrelated?

Besides the goals discussed in this lesson, what other foreign policy goals should be prioritized?

What is the most important foreign policy challenge facing the United States?

• How do you think the COVID-19 pandemic changed American foreign policy?

Additional Resources

• Lesson Plan: Tools of Foreign Policy
• C-SPAN Classroom Deliberation: What is the best approach to US foreign policy in the 21st century?
• Authoritarian
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• Economic Growth
• Foreign Aid
• Intelligence Community
• International Institutions
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Suggestions

• Brave New World
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Of Mice and Men
• The Handmaid's Tale
• The Scarlet Letter

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Foreign Policy

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Study Questions

In what ways does the foreign policymaking process resemble the domestic policymaking process?

Foreign policy usually goes through the same basic steps—an issue gets on the agenda; policy alternatives are offered; the government adopts a policy; the policy is implemented; and the policy is evaluated. The difference is that the number of people involved is usually smaller.

Describe the Bush Doctrine.

The Bush Doctrine, put forward by President George W. Bush, argues that the United States should preemptively attack nations that could pose a threat to it.

What is the military-industrial complex? Why do some people see it as a problem?

The military-industrial complex is the alliance of the armed forces, defense contractors, and members of Congress whose districts rely heavily on the military. Some worry that it wields too much influence, increasing the size of the military in order to boost profits.

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Foreign Policy Study Guide and Unit Packet

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Learning Objective

Students will apply social science skills to demonstrate knowledge of Foreign Policy and comparative government for a middle school or high school Civics classroom.

Description

This thorough packet on Foreign Policy and Comparative Government is a perfect unit guide to help students understand all of the key concepts that they need to know for this unit in Civics or American Government.

The 9-page independent work packet includes engaging pages on all every aspect of a unit on foreign policy and America's government. There's also standards-based Essential Questions to guide your whole unit!

It starts off with a short overview reading to introduce students to foreign policy and its role in American government . It then moves on to pages on:

• A timeline of American foreign policy
• Internationals Organizations to Know
• Comparing World Governments
• Key Concepts
• Images & visual Literacy

Content covered includes the UN, embassies, Washington's Farewell Address, the Truman Doctrine, Good Neighbor Policy, isolationism vs internationalism, and more!

There are engaging analysis questions throughout the packet so that students are not just copying information, but thinking about the key concepts. Pages feature primary source excerpts and quotes, images for students to analyze, and more. The resource can be split up and used as worksheets or as a complete packet!

Also included is an editable Google Docs version of the entire packet. This version features links to great online sources and is perfect for those of you who have gone paperless or use Google Classroom.

A complete answer key is also included for your convenience.

This resource can also be downloaded as part of my complete Foreign Policy Unit Guide Packet .

You can find more of my study guide packets here !

Thanks so much for checking it out!

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Foreign Policy

Lesson plan.

Many pieces play a part in carrying out our nation’s foreign policy—and they don’t always get along. In this lesson, students learn what foreign policy is, discover the agencies who execute it, and examine how the legislative and executive branches sometimes clash. The lesson includes a case study that focuses on the Vietnam War and a spotlight activity that asks students to make the tough choices involved in a foreign policy decision. 

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Teacher Resources

Get access to lesson plans, teacher guides, student handouts, and other teaching materials.

• Foreign Policy_HS_Lesson plan.pdf
• Foreign Policy_HS_Student docs.pdf

I find the materials so engaging, relevant, and easy to understand – I now use iCivics as a central resource, and use the textbook as a supplemental tool. The games are invaluable for applying the concepts we learn in class. My seniors LOVE iCivics.

Lynna Landry , AP US History & Government / Economics Teacher and Department Chair, California

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