Foreign Policy Making in a Democratic Society

Abstract

American Foreign Policy and the Politics of Fear: Threat Inflation since 9/11. Edited by A. Trevor Thrall, Jane K. Cramer. London and New York: Routledge, 2009. xvii + 235 pp. $39.95 paperback (ISBN 978-0-415-77769-8). Avoiding Trivia: The Role of Strategic Planning in American Foreign Policy. Edited by Daniel W. Drezner. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2009. viii + 190 pp. $24.95 paperback (ISBN 978-0-8157-0306-8). Treaty Politics and the Rise of Executive Agreements: International Commitments in a System of Shared Powers. By Glen S. Krutz, Jeffrey S. Peake. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009. xi + 252 pp. $75.00 hardcover (ISBN 978-0-472-11687-4). The majority of the published studies of US foreign policy focus on the implementation of policy—on American policy in a region, US relations with a country or policy concerning a particular issue. The three books under review here, however, concern the making of US foreign policy in the domestic political system rather than with its implementation. At first glance these volumes appear to deal with quite disparate topics—strategic planning in US foreign policy making, the expanding role of executive agreements in US relations with other countries, and the importance of fear and threat inflation in foreign policy making, especially since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001. But on further examination, all three of these important publications examine aspects of foreign policy decision making in the complex environment that is the US political system with its numerous checks and balances and its unique political culture. Treaty Politics and the Rise of Executive Agreements and American Foreign Policy and the Politics of Fear both focus on the means employed by the executive branch of government in building support for what it views as important policy decisions, while Avoiding Trivia represents a call for greater planning and forethought, rather than mere reaction to ongoing events, as the foundation for US foreign policy. In other words, all three volumes deal with the complex problem of foreign policy decision making in a political system in which political authority is distributed across different branches and levels of government. Although the three books all examine aspects of the decision-making process in US foreign policy, their respective areas of focus are distinct enough that I will discuss them individually rather than attempt to force them into a common mold or framework for comparative purposes. In discussing the three books, however, I will point …