Shaping American Foreign Policy Research Articles

Party polarisation in the American Congress and the duration of legislated economic sanctions, 1945–2005

ABSTRACT This article explores whether party polarisation in the American Congress affects the length of legislated sanctions. While Congress can enact sanctions, it usually authorises the president to waive, suspend or terminate them. However, Congress can prevent the president from ending a sanction if both parties can cooperate to block the presidential proposal or pass a sanction bill challenging the presidential preference. Borrowing from moderate polarisation argument that both parties can cooperate only when they are moderately polarised, I argue that the probability of sanction termination declines if Congress is moderately polarised but increases when Congress is either least or extremely polarised. This is because only under moderately polarised Congress can both parties cooperate to stop the sanction termination. I test this argument using TIES data (1945–2005) and find support for this expectation. This research contributes to our knowledge on the role of congressional dynamics in shaping American foreign policy.

Post-Orientalism and Geopolitics: Three Debates that inform Islam and US Foreign Policy

This article argues that a post-orientalist discourse has emerged over the past few decades to challenge the dominance of orientalism on Western foreign policy thinking towards Islam and the Muslim world. The paper examines the geostrategic thinking of Bernard Lewis, Edward Said, and John Esposito, and their impact on Western perceptions of Islam. The paper submits that while Edward Said exposed the prejudice inherent in orientalist thought, it was John Esposito and a cohort of post-orientalist scholars who engaged in three critical debates with the orientalist to provide a more authentic vision of Islam and a more nuanced picture of the politics of the Muslim world. The paper however concedes that while post-orientalism has triumphed in the academic setting, the orientalist perspective still dominates the policy sphere and continues to shape American foreign policy.

Dwight Eisenhower and American Foreign Policy During the 1960s: An American Lion in Winter. By Richard M.Filipink, Jr.New York: Lexington Books, 2014. 133 pp.

Dwight Eisenhower and American Foreign Policy During the 1960s: An American Lion in Winter. By Richard M. Filipink, Jr. New York: Lexington Books, 2014. 133 pp. Richard M. Filipink, Jr. pierces through the mythology that still surrounds Dwight D. Eisenhower and portrays him as an extremely conservative ideologue and a Machiavellian politician shaping American foreign policy in the 1960s. The author makes a persuasive case that Eisenhower used his immense personal popularity to influence the foreign policy of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Clearly, he consistently advocated a militaristic response to the many challenges these Democratic presidents faced in the Cold War. Unquestionably, Eisenhower was devious, intellectually disingenuous, and politically partisan. The author states, Once he was no longer in office, Eisenhower was clearly much more willing to support the use of force to obtain foreign policy goals (111). In fact, he was the same old Eisenhower. As president, he had, behind the scenes, habitually supported threatening or using force in Korea, Indochina, China, Iran, Guatemala, Lebanon, and Cuba. He carefully hid this militant belligerency from both the public and the press. President Eisenhower, a man of the middle path and a moderate Republican, is essentially mythological. Filipink shatters many of these falsehoods by showing him as extremely quarrelsome and taking contradictory stands on many issues before eventually taking a negotiated public position, while often holding the exact opposite point of view in private. Virtually all of the crises in foreign affairs that Kennedy and Johnson confronted have their origins in the Eisenhower administration. Eisenhower carefully maintained his reputation of being nonpartisan in foreign affairs, while, in reality, being highly partisan and extremely critical of the Democrats. Kennedy and Johnson reasonably feared the possibility that he would attack their foreign policy. Appeasing Eisenhower became an important theme for them. Kennedy, however, as Filipink properly points out, had a healthy disdain for Ike's foreign policy advice. Kennedy wisely rejected his counsel on sending U.S. troops to Laos. Eisenhower gave Kennedy a scathing critique of the Bay of Pigs, but then promised not to publicly embarrass or humiliate the new president. Kennedy then calmly took no military action with the construction of the Berlin Wall. All of these actions made him appear weak to Eisenhower. Yet, with his successful handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy adopted a very independent foreign policy. He negotiated a limited test ban treaty, which Eisenhower had opposed. …

The Role of Arab American Advocacy Groups in Shaping American Foreign Policy

This paper aims to offer some insights into the ways in which Arab-Americans experience the United States and adjust to its political institutions. It stresses how such a community still finds it difficult to consolidate its efforts and exert pressure on the decision making process. But to gain national visibility and recognition, they need first to voice its concerns throughout mainstream advocacy groups. In this regard, the term “Arab lobby” is a misnomer as very often it is used as a shorthand word for the loose coalition of organizations that seek to improve Arabs’ conditions in the U.S. and to influence American foreign policy in the Middle East. Notwithstanding, this study is meant to highlight the difference between what some termed the informal Arab lobby, sponsored by rich oil countries, and the formal Arab American lobby, represented today by the Arab American Institute (AAI) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and headquartered in Washington D.C. However, while the different components of the pro-Arab lobby cannot represent “the Arabs” as a united political group, they have been able to share a common concern: Palestine. In effect, not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been a top priority and a principal focus of the Arab lobby as a whole, but it has also been viewed as a tool to measure its political efficacy. Last but not least, despite the very limited success achieved by the Arab lobby in its attempts to shape American foreign policy (compared to its pro-Israel counterpart), this study demonstrates that the members of the Arab and Jewish communities in the United States share common grounds on almost every issue central to Arab-Israel peace and U.S. policy in the Middle East, on top of them the two-state solution (Zogby International, 2007).

The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1974 to the Present - Edited by Anna Kasten Nelson

The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1974 to the Present - Edited by Anna Kasten Nelson

The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present by Anna Kasten Nelson

The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present <i>by Anna Kasten Nelson</i>

ANNA KASTEN NELSON, editor. The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2009. Pp. vii, 188. Cloth $80.00, paper $26.95

Journal Article ANNA KASTEN NELSON, editor. The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2009. Pp. vii, 188. Cloth $80.00, paper $26.95 Get access Anna Kasten Nelson, editor. The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2009. Pp. vii, 188. Cloth $80.00, paper $26.95. The American Historical Review, Volume 114, Issue 2, April 2009, Page 525, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.114.2.525-c Published: 01 April 2009

Collected Essays:The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present

Collected Essays:The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present

From Geo to Neo: A Speculative Inquiry into the Unusual “Geo-Ethnic” Roots of Neoconservatism in US Foreign Policy

There has been much controversy over the role that ethnic diasporas (sometimes called “lobbies”) do or should play in shaping American foreign policy. This article looks at one particular ethnic group, American Jews, with a view to assessing the claim made by some authors, to the effect that “neoconservatism” has been influenced considerably by Judaism. The article mostly debunks that claim, at least if the suggestion is that something about Judaism as a religion can help account for the policy agendas espoused by neoconservatives in recent years. However, the authors do argue that a “geo-ethnic” link can be established between a Jewish diaspora in America and the evolution of neoconservatism. Their claim is that a “borderlands” tradition emanating originally on the Russian frontier in the latter part of the nineteenth century was exported to America, through the migration of peoples they refer to as “new borderers.” This folk community, the authors argue, coalesced with another, well-established, folk community of “borderers” (the Scotch-Irish), resulting in the formation of the coalition known in recent years as neoconservatism – a coalition representing a fusion of Jacksonianism and Wilsonianism.

James Brown Scott and the Rise of Public International Law

James Brown Scott played a key role in the growth of public international law in the United States from the 1890s to the 1940s. While little remembered today, he was well-known among his contemporaries as a leading spokesman for a new and important discipline. Scott rose from obscure middle-class origins to occupy a prominent and influential place as an international lawyer who shared his legal expertise with seven presidents and ten secretaries of state. By examining his life we gain insight into the establishment of public international law as a discipline and on the era when lawyersqualawyers began to help shape American foreign policy.

Virtue, Interest, and Works in American Foreign Policy

Three questions shape American foreign policy: Is it right? Is it in the national interest? And does it work? “Right” is defined by the American ethos, sometimes called the civil religion. Self-interest and pragmatism characterize the other two elements. The interplay among these factors may be found most clearly in presidential rhetoric. After examining Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Ronald Reagan, the article finds that while effective presidents have invoked a religiously based virtue, U.S. foreign policy itself tended to avoid religious issues. In contrast, President George W. Bush has relied on the American civil religion to combat Islamism. But his rhetoric “stretches too far” on democratic virtue at the expense of national interest and pragmatism. The article concludes that the U.S. civil religion, although based on theological ideas, does not travel well.

A Catholic Cold War: Edmund A. Walsh, S.J., and the politics of American anticommunism

This book is the first biography in 42 years of the priest and educator whomhistorians have called the most important anticommunist in the country.Edmund A. Walsh, as dean of Georgetown College and founder in 1919 of itsSchool of Foreign Service, is one of the most influential Catholic figures of the20th century. Soon after the birth of the Bolshevik state, he directed the PapalRelief Mission in the Soviet Union, starting a lifelong immersion in Soviet andCommunist affairs. He also established a Jesuit college in Baghdad, and servedas a consultant to the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal.A pioneer in the new science of geopolitics, Walsh became one of Truman's mosttrusted advisers on Soviet strategy. He wrote four books, dozens of articles, andgave thousands of speeches on the moral and political threat of Soviet Communismin America. Although he died in 1956, Walsh left an indelible imprint on theideology and practical politics of Cold War Washington, moving easily outside thetraditional boundaries of American Catholic life and becoming, in the words of onehistorian, practically an institution by himself.Few priests, indeed few Catholics,played so large a role in shaping American foreign policy in the 20th century.

For Keeps: Marriages that Last a Lifetime.

This book's unique combination of case studies and commentaries provides the basis for a systematic discussion of the role of individual leaders and complex institutions in U.S. foreign policy making. The case studies present routine and urgent, controversial and consensus-driven decisions in nine presidential administrations--from Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, to George W. Bush's responses to international terrorism in the wake of 9/11. Each chapter includes essential background information, a chronology of events, and primary source documents. Through all these elements, even students with little or no background in history will gain a new understanding of how presidents, institutions, and issues all shape American foreign policy.

For Keeps: Marriages That Last a Lifetime

This book's unique combination of case studies and commentaries provides the basis for a systematic discussion of the role of individual leaders and complex institutions in U.S. foreign policy making. The case studies present routine and urgent, controversial and consensus-driven decisions in nine presidential administrations--from Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, to George W. Bush's responses to international terrorism in the wake of 9/11. Each chapter includes essential background information, a chronology of events, and primary source documents. Through all these elements, even students with little or no background in history will gain a new understanding of how presidents, institutions, and issues all shape American foreign policy.

Harbingers of Peace? Women and American Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones Changing Differences: Women and the Shaping of American foreign Policy, 1917-1994

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones's Changing Differences documents the roles that women, both as insiders and outsiders, have played in shaping American foreign policy since the early years of this century. The tone of the study is optimistic: The author claims that women are, in his words, “the emergent gender” (p. 170) whose “untapped talent” is, in spite of struggle, experiencing “a measurable degree of success” (p. 197). We are left with the sense that women are likely to increase their influence over American foreign policy in coming years and that this will have a beneficial effect due to women's more peaceful nature.1 The association of women with peace is one of the major theses of the book, a claim the author supports both in his discussion of individual women, inside and outside policy circles, and by documenting a consistent gender gap in American public opinion with women being more likely to support peace initiatives and peace candidates than men. Beginning with pre-World War I women's peace movements, Jeffreys-Jones describes the role women have played in working for peace throughout the twentieth century. His discussion of women's groups lobbying for free trade during the 1930s, a movement that explicitly linked its ideas to a nineteenth-century liberal ideology that connected trade with peace, adds a dimension to women's peace activities that has hitherto not received much attention.

The public controversy over the Panama Canal treaties: An analysis of American foreign policy rhetoric

This essay examines the public rhetoric created during the debate over the Panama Canal treaties and argues that the debate provides an important glimpse into values shaping American foreign policy. Three different foreign policy dramas are found to be competing for public acceptance during the canal debate: the Cold War, New World Order, and Power Politics dramas. The essay argues that an examination of these three dramas gives insight into the way in which foreign policy rhetoric reflects Americans' conceptions of themselves and their global responsibility.

Response to Revolution: The United States and the Cuban Revolution, 1959-1961

The Cuban Revolution was a catalyst in shaping American foreign policy over the past generation. Welch's study is the first detailed evaluation of U.S. policy toward Cuba in the early years of the Castro regime and the first effort to analyze public sentiment during that crucial period. Our response to Cuba was a mirror of our Cold War assumptions and frustrations--and of our apprehensions concerning revolutionary movements abroad.

Richard G. Hovannisian on Lieutenant Robert Steed Dunn

The index to Richard Hovannisian's latest work: The Republic of Armenia. Volume II [From Versailles to London, 1919-1920], contains a single entry under: Dunn, Lieutenant Robert S. To anyone familiar with the role of Robert S. Dunn in Anatolian and Caucasian post World War I affairs, this cursory treatment must come as a bit of a surprise. Throughout the years 1919-1921, Dunn served as the U.S. High Commissioner, Admiral Mark L. Bristol's eyes and ears in this sensitive region, and it is no exaggeration to state that this U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer's contacts with the Bolsheviks, Armenian and Turkish Nationalist forces, and the reports he sent to Bristol based on them, were instrumental in shaping American foreign policy vis-a-vis this region during and after the period dealt with in the Hovannisian study.

Antibolshevism and American Foreign Policy, 1919-1939: The Diplomacy of Self-Delusion

ANTIBOLSHEVISM HAS CAST A LENGTHENING SHADOW ACROSS RECENT American diplomacy. In the years following the second world war, revolutionary and reformist movements around the globe were almost always interpreted as manifestations of Soviet subversion. Alleged Russian involvement in the Greek civil war was the basis of the Truman Doctrine in 1947, Eastern European arms sales to the reformist regime of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala prompted a coup planned by the CIA in 1954, rumors of a communist takeover in the Dominican Republic led to the dispatch of thousands of United States marines in 1965, and fears that a left-wing uprising in Lisbon might open the door to Soviet influence within NATO inspired an American quarantine of Portugal in 1974. Although most scholars have acknowledged that anticommunist ideology has played a central role in shaping American foreign policy since 1945, few appreciate fully the impact of the fear of bolshevism upon American diplomacy during the interwar period. To be sure, as early as the 1950s historians such as William Appleman Williams and Robert Paul Browder pointed out that mutual ideological antagonisms had ensured frosty Soviet-American relations from 1917 to 1941. Recent works by Joan Hoff Wilson, Daniel Yergin, Martin Weil, and Thomas Maddux have confirmed that antibolshevism predisposed State Department officials and Foreign Service Officers to adopt a hardline approach to the Soviet Union between the world wars. Yet what most observers fail to realize is that during the 1920s and the 1930s antibolshevism shaped United States relations with Latin America and southern Europe as well. Robert Bowers, Robert Freeman Smith, and Hugh DeSantis have treated this issue briefly, but without emphasizing how fears of Soviet subversion affected American attitudes toward politi-

The Growing Power of Congress. by David M. Abshire, Ralph D. Nurnberger

In The Growing Power of Congress, six expert analysts of American Government discuss the role of Congress in shaping American foreign policy -- a role that increased in both power and complexity during the 1970s. The essays scrutinize the changing balance between the executive and legislative branches in determining foreign policy, especially in the ability to take actions which may lead to war. Presidential and congressional leadership are explored in depth.