In a democratic system, there is no absolute leadership, no matter how powerful it is, the constitution provides always a check and balance with other authorities and institutions. In addition to check and balance, other factors like the advisory team, the lobbies, and the international institutions constraint the president’s ability to pursue his national security policy priorities. In this paper, I will argue that the congress with his constitutional power, and the president’s advisory team with their close proximity to the president are the factors that most severely constrain the president to pursue the national security policy priorities. The first factor to constraint the president ability to pursue his national security policy priorities
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Congressional groups engage in sustained campaigns of pressure and persuasion to produce the desired strategic decisions on the part of the Executive, just as in other areas the Administration uses pressure and persuasion to move its legislation through Congress . The best example of mutual pressure between the president and the congress is the Guantanamo bay closure argument. In his campaign for the presidency, Obama criticized the Bush administration for its interrogation policies and promised to close the prison at Guantanamo if he were elected. Later in his first year, his administration decided to prosecute some Guantanamo detainees in the federal court system and to hold the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York City. Republicans attacked Obama for each of these decisions, and political pressure forced him change his stance on civilian trials for terrorism suspects and the venue of trying them. Congress prevented him from closing Guantanamo Bay prison complex, but he held fast to his promise to outlaw coercive interrogations …show more content…
For instance the analogical reasoning explanation of Robert Kennedy during the Cuban crisis prevented the sudden air strike because he draw the analogy between the proposed air strike without warning on the missile site, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which could be considered by the world and by history as a Pearl Harbor in reverse, and as an attack by a leading power nation against a tinny nation without any warning or without any effort to resolve the crisis without force .
Accordingly, to reduce the effects stemming from these factors, the president should establish negotiation with the congress and try to build lobbies inside and outside the congress to help advance his policies and decisions. On the other hand he should choose his advisory team carefully, and encourage group discussions, generate initial concepts, and establish multiple groups to attack a problem to prevent groupthink
Congressional groups engage in sustained campaigns of pressure and persuasion to produce the desired strategic decisions on the part of the Executive, just as in other areas the Administration uses pressure and persuasion to move its legislation through Congress . The best example of mutual pressure between the president and the congress is the Guantanamo bay closure argument. In his campaign for the presidency, Obama criticized the Bush administration for its interrogation policies and promised to close the prison at Guantanamo if he were elected. Later in his first year, his administration decided to prosecute some Guantanamo detainees in the federal court system and to hold the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed in New York City. Republicans attacked Obama for each of these decisions, and political pressure forced him change his stance on civilian trials for terrorism suspects and the venue of trying them. Congress prevented him from closing Guantanamo Bay prison complex, but he held fast to his promise to outlaw coercive interrogations …show more content…
For instance the analogical reasoning explanation of Robert Kennedy during the Cuban crisis prevented the sudden air strike because he draw the analogy between the proposed air strike without warning on the missile site, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which could be considered by the world and by history as a Pearl Harbor in reverse, and as an attack by a leading power nation against a tinny nation without any warning or without any effort to resolve the crisis without force .
Accordingly, to reduce the effects stemming from these factors, the president should establish negotiation with the congress and try to build lobbies inside and outside the congress to help advance his policies and decisions. On the other hand he should choose his advisory team carefully, and encourage group discussions, generate initial concepts, and establish multiple groups to attack a problem to prevent groupthink