American Foreign Policy Midterm

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asymmetric warfare

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type of armed conflict between two sides of unequal strengh characterized by the weaker side's exploiting the vulnerabilities of other stronger. terrorism uses this.

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bandwagon

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a strategy by which less powerful states align diplomatically with a global or regional hegemon in exchange for security and economic benefits provided by the hegemon

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blowback

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hostile actions against a powerful state that are motivated largely by perceived wrongdoings and mistreatment by the targeted state

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bush doctrine

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a set of foreign policy principles and strategies including the possible launching of preventive wars devised by George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks

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empire

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a form of domination by a world power that includes direct control over the domestic and foreign policies of other political enemies

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exceptionalism

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a widely held sense of national distinctiveness or superiority, exemplified by americans' tradiaitonal view of their nation as a city upon a hill

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exemplarists

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advocates of a school of thought that believes the US should lead primarily by example rather than by intervening directly in foreign affairs

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globalization

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the melding of national and regional markets into a single world market with limited political barriers to commerce

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hegemon

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one nation-state that exerts a controlling influence over other countries and societies that falls short of formal political authority

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imperial presidency

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a critique of the US political system advanced in the 1970's by historian Schlesinger who described the president as governing virtually by decree

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national style

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the expression of cultural influences that have historically shaped a country's identity and approach to international relations

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primacy

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a country's predominant stature in the hierarchy of global power

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soft power

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the attractiveness of a nation's political and cultural values to other states and societies that enhances the nation's ability to gain support from other governments for its policy goals

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terrorism

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a tactic of gaining the upper hand in a political struggle through the use, by states or private actors, of political violence designed to raise mass fears

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unipolar balance of power

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a global power structure in which one nation-state maintains a predominant share of the economic, military and other resources needed to advance its interest in the interstate system

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vindicators

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advocates of a school of thought contending that us leaders should actively engage through diplomatic efforts as well as the use of military force in a global effort to combat injustice and aggression

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bipolar balance of power

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a global power structure in which two countries maintain a predominant share of resources and form rival blocs to offset each other's advantages

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bretton woods

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a series of agreements approved by the US and other market economies in 1944 that led to the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

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cold war

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the protracted conflict between the US, Soviet Union and their respective allies from World War II until 1991 that was labeled Cold because it never led to direct military combat between the nuclear superpowers

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collective security

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a system of preventing interstate conflict in which world leaders renounce war as an instrument of statecraft and then pledge to defend each other in the case of aggression. a hallmark of the league of nations

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containment

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US strategy devised by US diplomat George Kennan at the start of the Cold War to prevent Soviet expansion. A midrange alternative to the extremes of US withdrawal from global activism and direct military conflict with the Soviet Union

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cuban missile crisis

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a dangerous standoff between the US and the Soviet Union in October 1962 sparked by Soviet shipments of nuclear missiles to Cuba. The crisis which brought superpowers as close as ever to nuclear war, was settled peacefully after 2 weeks of tense negotiations

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democratic peace

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a theory of international relations arguing that a world of democracies would be more cooperative and less prone to interstate violence

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detente

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policy devised by Kissnger, NSA and secretary of state under presidents Nixon and Ford, to ease tensions between the US and the Soviet Union

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domino theory

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widespread view within the US government early in the cold war that a communist victory in one country would lead to a succession of additional victories in neighboring states

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engagement and enlargement

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clinton's national security policy emphasizing us global activism and the promotion of political reforms abroad that would enlarge the sphere to democratic rule

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failed states

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national governments that are incapable of maintaining order or providing even minimal services to their citizens

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geopolitics

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the impact of geographical factors on the distribution of global power and the foreign policies of states

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glasnot

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political reforms adopted by soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s that called for greater openness in the political system and a loosening of control by the Commnist Party

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gunboat diplomacy

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the use of deployed military forces as a means of political intimidation in order to achieve a nation's foreign policy preferences without resorting to violence

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iron curtain

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coined by Churchill in 1946 to describe the metaphorical line separating communist countries under Soviet control from the capitalist countries of Western Europe supported by the US.

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kellogg briand pact

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1928 agreement among 15 countries including the US that condemned recourse to war for the solution of international controversies and as an instrument of national policy

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lend-lease program

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program devised by the United States during World War II to provide military assets to Great Britain in exchange for US access to British military bases

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liberal internationalism

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key aspect of president jimmy carter's foreign policy that called for US global involvement consistent with the country's moral principles and political ideals

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manifest destiny

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a belief popular in the early history of the US that the nation had God's blessing to expand and assume political control of a wider population

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marshall plan

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us foreign policy initiative approved in 1947 that provided us allies with economic aid to hasten their recovery after WWII

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monroe doctrine

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proclamation by Monroe in 1823 that politically separated the US from Europe and declared future colonization in the Western Hemisphere a threat to US national security

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multipolar balance of power

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a condition in world politics in which 3 or more countries maintain global predominance in terms of military, economic and other forms of power

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national security state

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a political system in which the institutions of national defense overshadow the nonmilitary agencies of the government

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new look

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eisnhower's shift in security strategy that enlarged the role of nuclear weapons and created new military alliances to contain the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China

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new unilateralism

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shift in us foreign policy in the late 1990s characterized by a hostile stance toward multilateral agreements and intergovernmental bodies particularly the UN and its agencies

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new world order

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First Bush's characterization of the emerging post-Cold War international system, emphasizing democratization, economic globalization, and multilateral cooperation

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open door policy

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a policy adopted by the US government in 1899 that called for free trade access to China and discouraged other trading states from dividing China into sphere of influence

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operation desert storm

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1991 us led counteroffensive against iraq to eject its forces from Kuwait

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operation iraqi freedom

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us invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in March 2003 ordered by Second Bush whose claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction later proved unfounded

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perestroika

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political reforms adopted by soviet president mikhail gorbachev in the late 1980s that called for restructuring the soviet economy to spur innovation and efficiency

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roosevelt corollary

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Teddy Roosevelt's 1904 expansion of Monroe Doctrine proclaiming that the US had authority to act as an international police power outside its borders in order to maintain stability in the Western Hemisphere

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surge strategy

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military strategy adopted in 2007 by the US Department of Defense in which more than 20,000 additional troops were deployed to Iraq to suppress domestic violence and improve the prospects for subsequent withdrawals of US forces from the country

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truman doctrine

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Truman's pledge to provide military aid to Greece and Turkey to help overcome internal communist revolts and to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures

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unilateralism

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pursuit of foreign policy objectives without the collaboration or assistance of other governments

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vietnam syndrome

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national self-doubts in the US in the late 1960's and 1970s as the nation's involvement and defeat in the Vietnam War led to a weakened sense of US primacy and moral superiority

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anarchy

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the lack of world government to regulate and restrain the behavior of countries, a condition emphasized by structural realists as the defining feature of world politics

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balance of power

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the distribution of resources and capabilities among nation-states. in realist theory, a belief that global stability can be maintained when the strongest nation-states have roughly equal levels of power

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belief systems

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individual worldviews, formed early in life that directly influence decision makers foreign policy goals and strategies as well as their responses to specific problems

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bolstering

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theory that once a decision is made policy makers later use that decision to bolster or lend additional support to their original argument regarding the problem at hand

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bounded rationality

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a decision-making environment characterized by an influx of more information than can be managed effectively, leading to policy decisions that do not fully conform to standards of rationality

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bureaucratic politics

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a model of policy making that emphasizes inherent conflicts of interest among government agencies. the state is perceived as an arena of bureaucratic struggle rather than a unitary actor

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causal beliefs

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the perceptions that an individual decision maker holds regarding the most likely functional links among policy problems, their sources, and alternative solutions to solve them

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cognitive consistency

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the common subconscious tendency of individuals to perceive new information as consistent with their preexisting belief systems

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cognitive pyschology

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study of means by which individuals obtain and process information about the world around them

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congressional dominance model

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a model of policy making that views legislators in congress as masters of the federal bureaucracy, capable to ensuring that their policy preferences are carried out in the policy process

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constructivism

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body of social and political thought that argues that public problems, including those related to foreign policy, do not have fixed or objective properties but ratehr are socially constructed, primarily through social discourse

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crisis decision making

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distinctive aspects of decision making exhibited by presidents and other foreign policy makers during times of heightened international stress

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game theory

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an approach to problem solving, drawing on economics and mathematics, that applies assumptions of rational choice and cost-benefit analysis to negotiations and bargaining on foreign policy issues

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global governance

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combines traditional state-to-state diplomacy with policy collaboration among private groups and intergovernmental organizations

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groupthink

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dysfunctional collective decision making characterized by a strong sense of a group's moral righteousness, closed-mindedness and pressures towards conformity

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identity

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the definition and widely held conception of an individual or group as considered apart from others. a central element of construcivist theory

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interdependence

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in contrast to anarchy, a model of world politics devised by liberal theorists based on mutual reliance among states and their need to cooperate in solving shared problems

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iron triangles

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alliance of influential interest groups, congressional committees, and corresponding executive branch agencies to carry out policies of mutual concern to the exclusion of other policy actors or outside interests

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issue networks

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a model of decision making that involves more actors and is more open to competing viewpoints than the iron triangle model. brings together interested governmental and private actors with shared expertise in a given area of public policy,