Current Foreign Policy Research Articles

Current Foreign Aid Patterns and Policies on Education in Developing Countries among Like‐minded Nations: some key issues

ABSTRACT Even the front runners among Western nations seem to be influenced by the current international ideological climate and the emphasis on the creation of market economies, democracies and private initiative in recipient developing countries. At the same time, they maintain their traditional poverty orientation as an overall goal for their assistance. In this paper some of the critical issues in the direction of educational assistance in the 1990s among three selected like‐minded nations are discussed in light of the general change of the international climate towards developing countries.

Security and Sacrifice: Isolation, Intervention, and American Foreign Policy

The disintegration of the Soviet Union has once again brought to the fore the question that has preoccupied American foreign policy since our nation's founding: what role should America take in the World? In Security and Sacrifice: Isolation, Intervention, and American Foreign Policy, Elliott Abrams describes and analyzes the international political system that faces the U.S. in the aftermath of the Cold War. Abrams argues, that the United States must first create a domestic consensus on just what America's role should be in a rapidly changing international order. However, as he points, standing in the way of such agreement is a fundamental dispute over values and interests, and it turns on one crucial question: When should the United States risk the lives of American soldiers to solve problems in other countries? Through Abrams analysis, and the twists and turns of American Foreign policy during the Cold War, there becomes a clearer picture for the future. Offering insight and recommendation, Abrams explores not only the alternatives to today's current foreign policy issues, but intrigues his audience by his forecast into the Clinton Administration and the future of American foreign policy; as well as recent analysis of the Bush legacy and the context for peaceful relations in the Gulf region.

Pyongyang's Foreign Policy: Continuity and Change

This article examines the possible courses of North Korea's foreign policy in the 1990s. Pyongyang's traditional and current foreign policy is shown to pursue related goals of legitimacy, security, and development. In examining the operational environment of Pyongyang's foreign policy decisions in the next decade, the author emphasizes that changes in the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and South Korea may force North Korea to soften its hardline foreign policy. Similarly domestic pressures, particularly from a weakening economy and a changing military balance on the peninsula, also suggest that North Korea will move toward supporting meaningful inter-Korean dialogue. Finally changes in the North Korean decision-making elite should also encourage a readjustment of foreign policy priorities. The author suggests there will be incremental change in North Korea's foreign policy in the 1990s, rather than the continuity of previous decades.

Foreign policies of U.S. higher education institutions: Accident or design?

Based on a content analysis of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1984 to 1989, the authors find that current foreign policy decisions of higher education institutions are being made reactively within four policy arenas: research, students, investments, and academic programs. The authors conclude that a comprehensive foreign policy should be included in an institution's strategic planning process.

Ideological News Reporting from the Third World: A Case Study of International Newspaper and Magazine Coverage of the Civil War in Nigeria 1967-70

The article presents an empirical test of opposed positions in the debate over sources of imbalance and distortion in reporting of Third World affairs: are they due to ideological bias or to lack of journalistic freedom in the countries concerned? An analysis of coverage of the 1967-70 Nigerian civil war was made on newspapers and magazines in countries with different attitudes towards the Federal government and Biafran rebels — Britain, France, Germany, the Soviet Union and the USA. The results confirm the influence of ideological factors, notably traditional colonial images and current foreign policy interests, but restrictions on access to news sources may also have had an impact.

The International Petroleum Game and Norway's Dilemma

Noreng, Ø. The International Petroleum Game and Norway's Dilemma. Cooperation and Conflict, XVII, 1982, 85-93. The first part of this article outlines trends in the world petroleum market, which is a 'political' and oligopolistic market. The international oil market with governments as oligopolists favours the politicization of the oil trade. The international gas market is more compartmentalized. In Western Europe the supply side is oligopolistic, whereas the demand side is a monopsony, a single buyer, a cartel of gas importers on the continent. The second part of the article deals with Norway's dilemma as a marginal supplier of oil and the world's third exporter in the international gas market. Norwegian petroleum policy has essentially been elaborated with domestic economic and social considerations in mind, with the foreign policy aspects being singularly absent. The conscious separation of petroleum policy and foreign policy appears to be a defence mechanism to avoid difficult dilemmas. It is probably the only way the current foreign policy can be combined with a petroleum policy that is acceptable to Norwegian interests.

Foreign Affairs and National Defense in the Year 2000

We Americans are uneasy about developments we see taking place around the world and we are confused and divided over what to do about them. There are convincing signs that detente, the vaunted centerpiece of our current foreign policy, is significantly eroding. Our government is at odds with the Soviets in various parts of the world in ways reminiscent of the Cold War. The SALT Talks are lagging. There is reaction in this country, ranging from enlightened concern to blind hysteria, over the Soviet military buildup that was going on steadily during the years that we were mired down in Vietnam. In the meantime, we are worried about the growing strength of the Communist parties in Western Europe, the turmoil in Africa, the unresolved Arab-Israeli tensions, the threatening mystique of changing leadership in China, and volatile situations in Korea and other countries of western Asia, in Portugal, Spain, Cuba, and Panama. There is also major anxiety over the emerging assertiveness of Third World countries, the demonstrated power of commodity cartels, and the bristling hostility of many developing nations toward the United States. we were to rely on official actions and pronouncements by our government for guidance, it would seem that very little has changed in our international outlook in recent years. Yet we know that since Vietnam there have been profound changes in the public perception of America's future role in the world. There is a significant gap between the public unease about where we are going in international affairs and the directions in which our leaders proclaim we are heading. In response to new needs and changing conditions of the post-Vietnam era, the American people have signaled a vague, but nonetheless strong, feeling that the old policies of power diplomacy and military intervention in countries where our national interest is not clearly at stake are no longer acceptable. Congress, more closely responsive to the electorate than the Administration, has asserted from time to time a newly developed sense of responsibility in foreign affairs, an advent that has been bitterly opposed and condemned by the Administration. So our foreign policy is locked in dubious battle between new needs of a changing world order and old policy patterns rigidly insisted upon by our leaders. The strategic strength of our country, despite dire warnings from some quarters that our military power is dangerously slipping, is such that we have some limited time to sort out our priorities and get our bearings. But the clock is running and soon we must make some hard choices about foreign and defense policy for the future that will serve our true national interests and command the support of the people. With regard to this countdown, we would do well to remember Churchill's warning spoken in England's darkest days: If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

Ch'iao Kuan-Hua's "Speech on the Current World Situation and China's Foreign Policy" (May 20, 1975)

Ch'iao Kuan-Hua's "Speech on the Current World Situation and China's Foreign Policy" (May 20, 1975)

Swedish Foreign Policy. A Response to Geopolitical Factors

Sweden is considered a nonaligned country. The author analyses the concepts of nonalignment and related theories to arrive at an exact definition of Swedish foreign policy. The second half of the article demonstrates how Sweden's current foreign policy is a logical outcome in the light of her history and geopolitical position vis-à-vis her regional and world environment. The author achieves this by following some of Rosenau's concepts of linkage theories.

Swedish Foreign Policy. A Response to Geopolitical Factors

Sweden is considered a nonaligned country. The author analyses the concepts of non alignment and related theories to arrive at an exact definition of Swedish foreign policy. The second half of the article demonstrates how Sweden's current foreign policy is a logical outcome in the light of her history and geopolitical position vis-à-vis her regional and world environment. The author achieves this by following some of Rosenau's concepts of linkage theories.

The State Department at Home

The Department of State is entering a critical period at home. The public is growing less convinced of the wisdom of current foreign policies. Young people especially are alienated. Doubt about international purpose is exacerbated by uncertainty over national priorities as between domestic and foreign affairs. Problems of instability, violence, and poverty, once myopically regarded as endemic to foreign societies, now are recognized as serious domestic problems. In this troubled setting, the Department of State must make critical decisions on new policies and priorities. These major decisions will affect the lives of all Americans; all Americans should feel that they are somehow involved in the deliberations leading to them. To impart this sense of involvement and at the same time assist the Department of State to chart the wisest future course, the private foreign affairs community should be engaged in the dual roles of interlocutor between the government and the general public and of adviser to the Department of State. For the foreign affairs community to play these roles effectively, it will have to be strengthened, and the Department will have to treat that community as its natural and amicable constituency.

Questions for Americans

From what perspective should we who are concerned with religion and international affairs view the current foreign policy situation? Two factors of overriding importance stand out. First is the movement away from a bi-polar world and toward the pluralization of the world; second is the power shift, doubtless limited in character, but no less real, favoring the USSR at the expense of the U. S. A. (Henry A. Kissinger flatly asserts that “the missile gap in the period 1961-65 is now unavoidable”; and it is recognized by all competent observers that the USSR is leading the U. S. A. two to one in scientists under age thirty-five.)

Empire, New Style

Much of the confusion surrounding the nature of current American foreign policy stems from the fact that the conflicting interpretations are cast within the framework of analysis developed by Hobson and Lenin half a century ago. Those who deny the existence of American imperialism do so on the grounds that the facts do not fit those particular theories. Others insist upon the validity of the old formulations. But Hobson and Lenin wrote during and about the heyday of imperialism, whereas the world today finds itself in the fuzzy halflight provided by the twilight of imperialism and the dawn of world socialism. The problem, therefore, is to develop a description and theory appropriate to the changed circumstances.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Challenge to Political Scientists in Recent American Foreign Policy: Scholarship or Indoctrination?

This effort is impelled by a growing conviction that most of our people and much of our responsible political and intellectual leadership are so hopelessly confused in matters of foreign affairs, as actually to be becoming dangerously irresponsible. The paper is not meant to appear spectacular, nor is it aimed at being pleasing. It will attempt a bit of plain speaking to a very important segment of our intellectual leadership, with whatever persuasiveness it may attain. Most of it will consist of simple statements of readily verifiable fact. In the very nature of my space and personality limitations, my statements will have to be somewhat dogmatic, and readers are invited each to pursue his own confirmations of them.Implicit in the title are two propositions: (1) that our recent and current foreign policies and strategies have been basically so poorly conceived and so increasingly dangerous that they have been largely unworthy of the apparently dominant intellectual support they have received, and (2) that too much of what has been passing for political science scholarship has been little more than footnoted rationalization and huckstering of those policies.

A Democrat Looks at Foreign Policy

THE past months have set before our policy-makers a map whose essential features are not unfamiliar to those who have studied or been a part of the events of the past decade, but it is also crowded with new silhouettes. There are new projec tions, contours and dimensions. International events in recent months have accelerated in pace and have been in a flux not yet comprehended by the leadership of our nation or taken account of in adjustments in the machinery of our foreign policy. To an observer in the opposition party there appear two central weak nesses in our current foreign policy: first, a failure to appreciate how the forces of nationalism are rewriting the geopolitical map of the world?especially in North Africa, southeastern Europe and the Middle East; and second, a lack of decision and convic tion in our leadership, which has recoiled from clearly informing both the people and Congress, which seeks too often to substitute slogans for solutions, which at times has even taken pride in the timidity of its ideas.

Foundations of Current American Foreign Policy

Foundations of Current American Foreign Policy