Us Foreign Policy Midterm Highlights

Front 1

Primacy

Back 1

A state holding predominate stature in the global hierarchy of power.

Front 2

"A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise, yet he must strive to make everyone recognize in his actions, greatness, dignity and strength"

Back 2

Machiavelli, The Prince

Front 3

"The strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept"

Back 3

Thucydides, The Melian Dialogue, The History of the Peloponesian War

Front 4

3 sources of interstate conflict since the 1648 peace of Westphalia

Back 4

1. security

2. resources

3. economic advantage

Front 5

Grand strategy

Back 5

1. what are my objectives

2. do I have the resources to obtain them

Front 6

Grand strategy options (4)

Back 6

1) primacy: acting unilaterally, often doesn't work

2) Neo-isolationism - due to imperial overstretch, let the world handle its own issues offshore balancing

3) selective engagement - with pivotal states such as South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Djibouti, Mexico, Venezuela.

4) Woodrow Wilson idealism: liberal democratic internationalism, collective security, multilateralism (such as League of Nations, UN)

Front 7

Rational decision making model

Back 7

1. problem recognition and definition

2. goal selection

3. identification of alternatives

4. choice

Front 8

Balance of power theory

Back 8

System is most stable when there is no hegemon, the system is fluid and there is a balancer. Additionally, if a state is broken, it must be rebuilt.

Front 9

Bruce Jentleson's 4 Ps

Back 9

1. principle

2. power

3. peace

4. prosperity

Front 10

examples of situations in which the US has faced CONFLICT over the 4 ps (2)

Back 10

1. US Guatemalan coup d'etat in 1954: conflict between prosperity & power vs. principles

2. Tiananmen Square massacre 1989: prosperity vs principles

3. US with Kosovo: peace, power, principle but not prosperity

-Trade-offs are more frequent than all 4 being at play in a given situation.

Front 11

What theory/mindset does US foreign policy adhere to?

Back 11

political realism: the system is anarchic, but has some order, such as the UN, G8, ASEAN, ICC, Japan-US Treaty

Front 12

Examples of when all 4 ps were at play

Back 12

1. 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War

2. 1947 Marshall Plan

3. US intervention in Bosnia

It is less often that all 4 ps are at play for one decision, but it is optimal.

Front 13

Washington's Farewell Address of 1796 (7)

Back 13

1. Avoid involvement in the affairs of Europe whose primary interests were alien to those of the US.

2. Security should be achieved at home

3. Temporary alliances whenever absolutely necessary

4. Maintain a strong military

5. Urged commerce and friendship with all nations on the basis of good faith and respect for treaties

6. Opposed "permanent inveterate antipathies against some nations"

7. Opposed "passion attachment with others where common interest might be imagine but did not exist in reality.

Front 14

What was the MAIN principle of US Foreign Policy outlined by George Washington in his 1796 Farewell Address?

Back 14

No permanent friends, no permanent enemies but permanent interests.

Front 15

Converging factors in the US foreign policy process (4)

Back 15

1. systemic factors (ex: balance of power, global economy, international laws and organizations)

2. societal factors (ex: public opinion, interest groups, news media coverage)

3. governmental factors (ex: bureaucratic politics and rivalries, advisory systems)

4. individual factors (ex: belief systems, cognitive limitations, personality traits)

Front 16

Alexis de Tocqueville (3)

Back 16

Frenchman who wrote Democracy in America. Captured the political mind of the American.

1. Democracy is inferior to other political systems in regards to foreign policy.

2. Democracy's strengths have no more than indirect influence on the standing of one nation in respect to another.

3. Democracy has a difficult time coordinating the details of a great undertaking and fixing on a plan to carry it out through determination in the face of obstacles. Has difficulty with patience.

Front 17

When did the US become an imperial power?

Back 17

The Spanish American war of 1898

Front 18

Manifest Destiny

Back 18

"Cult of nationalism" in which the United States thought it had divine blessing to expand beyond its borders. Provided a moral basis for expansion and came to dominate the western hemisphere by default

Front 19

independent/dependent/intermediate variable model

Back 19

Independent variables are all the things that influence US foreign policy(ex: the international system, role of congress, presidential personality), while dependent variables are US foreign policy output. Intermediate variables are learning experiences, such as Iraq, Somalia or Vietnam.

Front 20

Choke points

Back 20

1. Strait of Hormuz: oil access for consumers of Persian Gulf Oil

2. Strait of Malacca: shipping between East Asia and south Asia/Europe/Africa etc.

3. Panama Canal: connects Pacific and Atlantic

4. Dardanelle/Bosporus: Russian access to Med., Crimea

5. Bab-el Mandeb- connects Indian Ocean to Red Sea/Med. Sea

6. Suez Canal: connects Med. Sea to Red Sea/Indian Ocean

7. Gibraltar: connects Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean

Front 21

Individual level of analysis: What does it mean to be an American? (6)

Back 21

1. Exceptionalism (seeing ourselves as superior or special)

2. Moralism (as one of the most religious countries in the world, church influences foreign policy)

3. Liberalism (freedom of media, assembly, speech, due process, separation of church and state, civilian control of the military)

4. Capitalism

5. Legalism

6. Racism (Our foreign policy relates better with Europe than with Asia, Middle East, Latin America or Africa)

Front 22

American interaction with others (the way they see us)

Back 22

1. messianism (religious devotion to an ideal cause)

2. idealism

3. paternalism

4. unilateralism

Front 23

paternalism

Back 23

A system under which an authority undertakes to supply needs or regulate conduct of those under its control in matters affecting them as well as in their relations to authority and to each other.

Front 24

NSC 68

Back 24

NSC-68 largely shaped U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War for the next 20 years, and involved a decision to increase the pressure of Containment against global Communist expansion a high priority. It rejected the alternative policies of friendly Détenteor aggressive Rollback.

Front 25

Sestanovich significant Truman events (5)

Back 25

1. Russians go nuclear: 1949

2. Mao takes over China, communist: 1949

3. NSC-68, 1950

4. German rearmament

5. Korean War, 1950-1953

Front 26

Eisenhower major Sestanovich events

Back 26

1. Creation of N/S Korean border at 38th parallel

2. Germany becomes full member of NATO, rearmed

3. Suez Crisis, US legitimacy after condemning allies' attack on the canal.

4. Eisenhower doctrine

5. Eisenhower, Khruschev begin formal talks to restrict nuclear weapons tests.

Front 27

Kennedy major Sestanovich events

Back 27

1. Berlin crisis, 1962: west stands ground and doesn't withdrawal from West Berlin

2. Cuban missile crisis, 1962: Khruschev removes nukes after US-Cuba blockade

3. Limited Test Ban Treaty, first east-west arms control agreements

4. Us supports coup overthrowing Diem in South Vietnam

5. 15,000 US advisers and trainers in South Vietnam

Front 28

Petrol states (2)

Back 28

1. Russia, Iran Venezuela

2. Fracking is good because we don't have to depend on petrol states that we don't have a good relationship with, we don't care if their economies fall

Front 29

Aircraft carriers

Back 29

1. 11 of them

2. Make sure all choke points are open

3. Gives US a presence everywhere

Front 30

Significance of Israel (3)

Back 30

1. "permanent aircraft carrier" in a major area of US interest

2. advanced military that works closely with US

3. Big, high tech economy

Front 31

What did Obama say about the US on 60 minutes?

Back 31

That the US is the indispensable power, whenever there is a problem in the world, such as ebola, they call us.

Front 32

Presidential styles (4 in Sestanovich)

Back 32

1. Truman: maximalist

2. Eisenhower: retrenchment

3. Kennedy: maximalist

4. Johnson: retrenchment then maximalist

Front 33

Major turning points in Vietnam (4)

Back 33

1. 1954: French forces defeated by communist Vietcong forces - Europe is out, US responsibility to quell communism

2. 1954: Geneva Peace talks, fail because N. Vietnam wouldn't leave S. Vietnam

3. 1964: Gulf of Tonkin, gave Johnson authority to take military action in Vietnam.

4. 1968: Tet offensive reveals to American public that we are not winning the war, public support plummets

Front 34

Domino effect

Back 34

If one nation falls to communism, the rest are sure follow.

Front 35

2 Ps

Back 35

Guatemalan coup, power & prosperity

Front 36

3 ps

Back 36

Kosovo, Peace, Principle, Power, not prosperity

Front 37

French bank Iran issue

Back 37

classic example of soft power: everything is pegged to the US dollar so it would have financially ruined them

Front 38

Examples of no permanent friends, enemies

Back 38

Japan, Germany, Vietnam

Front 39

North Korean factor

Back 39

if you have a nuclear weapon you won't be attacked

Front 40

Libya factor

Back 40

giving up atomic weapons is stupid and leaves you too vulnerable

Front 41

paradox of American world power and an example

Back 41

We create institutions for our own interest, and these institutions also constrain us. Ex: we pay 22% of the UN budget but the UN can undermine our legitimacy.

Front 42

doctine

Back 42

a blueprint of American foreign policy at any given time

Front 43

Problems US has confronting terrorism (4)

Back 43

1. asymmetric warfare

2. non state actors don't have to follow international norms

3. balloon effect: squeeze one part air comes out somewhere else

4. no center of gravity

Front 44

The Long Telegram

Back 44

Written by George Kennan in 1946, to US treasury about Soviet psyche.

USSR saw itself as at war with capitalism, didn't want to engage in military conflict but would exploit weak states around the globe. Said he thought US had ability to defeat them over time without direct military intervention.

Front 45

Significance of Spanish-American War, 1918

Back 45

US became an expansionist, imperial power.

Front 46

Geneva Peace talks in Vietnam

Back 46

Agreed to French getting out of Vietnam, Vietnam held elections that US observed but didn't support because they knew Ho Chi Minh would win.