Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Foreign and
Military Policy
Learning Objectives
WHO GOVERNS?
1. Is American foreign policy set by public wishes
or elite views?
2. If only Congress can declare war, why has the
president become so powerful in military affairs?
TO WHAT ENDS?
1. Why do we go to war against some
dictatorships and not others?
2. Should our foreign policy be based on American
interests or some conception of human rights?
Introduction
In May 2011 Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces
in the house behind this wall, located in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Majoritarian Politics
President is dominant figure
Public opinion usually supports president
Examples: war, peace, global diplomacy
Following the
attack on Pearl
Harbor, President
Roosevelt ordered
all Japanese
Americans living
on the West Coast
be interned in
prison camps.
Presidential Power:
Extraordinary Measures
The Machinery of
Foreign Policy
10
World War II
Vietnam
September 11, 2001
Backing the President
Mass versus Elite Opinion
11
Popular Reactions to
Foreign Policy Crises
12
13
14
Political Polarization
Foreign Policy Goals
15
Military-industrial complex
War in Iraq
16
17
18
Total Spending
Escalation after 1950
Reflects changes in public opinion
19
20
21
Bipolar world
Unipolar world
Doctrine of preemption
22
23
24
25