Foreign Policy-Making: Modern Design

1953 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-391
Author(s):  
Bernard C. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Modern Design ◽  
The Subject

It is traditional, and frequently beneficial, to express dissatisfaction with the process of foreign policy-making in the United States. If political scientists have attracted a disproportionate share of attention for their indulgence in this national pastime, it may well be due to their command of word and pen rather than to the uniqueness of their concern with the subject. Nearly everyone who thinks about the problem has had a liberal amount of unkind words to distribute among different actors and institutions engaged in policy formulation.

Notes and Comments

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES C. GARAND ◽  
MARCI GLASCOCK LICHTL
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Growth Industry ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Media

In recent years the study of divided government has been a growth industry. Numerous scholars have sought to explain patterns of divided government in the United States, while others have attempted to explore the consequences of the phenomenon. No doubt this scholarly interest in the subject is due in large part to the attention paid by the political media to divided control of the presidency and Congress during the 1980s, as well as the resulting ’gridlock‘ that dominated policy making in Washington during that time period.

Academic Analysis and U.S. Policy-Making on Africa: Reflections and Conclusions

1991 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-48
Author(s):  
David S. Wiley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Scholarly Community ◽  
Private Foundations ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Voice

Late in the 1980s, several major U.S. private foundations concluded that the concern for Africa in the country was weak. This weakness was reflected in the faint focus on U.S. foreign policy toward Africa in all three branches of government, in the halting voice for Africa or for U.S. interests there in the non-governmental organizations (think-tanks, religious organizations, lobbies), and in the small concern for U.S. policy or for affecting it in the African studies scholarly community. Indeed, the voice for Africa in the United States was neither strong nor effective.

Our Columnists on the A-Bomb

1950 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-87
Author(s):  
Janet Besse ◽  
Harold D. Lasswell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Opinion differs about the role of syndicated columnists in the forming of national opinion and in the decision-making process in the United States. Our columnists have been the subject of pioneering studies, but we have a long way to go before the picture can be called historically complete, scientifically precise, or fully satisfactory for policy-making purposes. What the columnists say is an important chapter in the history of the American public, and history is most useful for critical purposes when written close to the event. The general theory of communication and politics can be refined as the details of the opinion process are more fully known.

National Security Policy-Making and Cacophony of Voices in the Reagan Administration

1982 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
P.M. Kamath
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
National Interest ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
National Security Policy

In the post-World War II period “national security” has become the most important concept commanding respect among policy-makers and demanding crippling-silence on the part of the national community. It is not necessary here to examine the reasons1, for this commandeering position given to the concept of national security, but in an objective sense, foreign affairs of any nation in the ultimate analysis is conducted to secure national security. In this sense national security essentially denotes a nation's determination to preserve at any cost some of its interests. Foremost are : territorial integrity, political independence and fundamental governmental institutions.2 In the contemporary world it is also a well established fact that the military, diplomatic and economic aspects of a nation's foreign affairs are inseperably interlinked with one another. While foreign policy aims at serving national interest through peaceful diplomatic means, military policy aims at preparedness to protect national interest in case foreign policy fails. The foreign policy of a nation has also to take into consideration economic states involved in a particular policy consideration. This is particularly true for a super power like the United States. Hence, in a sense, it is appropriate to term the combination of foreign and military policies of a nation as national security policy. Who makes national security policy in the United States? What are the special features of national security policy-making process? It is proposed to answer these questions in this paper with special reference to the Reagan Administration.

American Foreign Policy and European Integration

1953 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajo Holborn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
European Integration ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Recent History ◽  
European Federation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American Policy ◽  
The Moment

The prospect of a European federation has aroused great enthusiasm in the United States, but at the same time the difficulties encountered in its realization have generated a host of frustrations. It is not unusual, after five years of costly effort, to hear that the moment of crisis has arrived; that we must either push ruthlessly toward the goal, or abandon not only integration but possibly assistance to Europe as well. Perhaps these are the only alternatives that confront the United States. But before we fasten on to them irrevocably, it may be well to ask once more: What is the nature of the area that we are attempting to integrate, and how has our thought on the subject developed? Some appreciation of the recent history and problems of Europe, and of the circumstances that inspired postwar American policy, may help to determine whether or not the range of choice is as narrow as it looks at present to the United States.

America's Departments of State: Irregular and Regular Syndromes of Policy Making

1981 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 911-927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert A. Rockman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modal Characteristics ◽  
Policy Syndromes ◽  
General Explanation

This article (1) sketches a general explanation for the growth of coordinative machinery and of irregular personnel in modern governments; (2) identifies both general and specific reasons for this phenomenon in the United States with special reference to foreign policy making; (3) identifies within the American foreign policy-making context the modal characteristics of irregular and regular syndromes of policy making, and the conjunction between personnel and institutional base; (4) traces the implications arising from these different policy syndromes; and (5) evaluates some proposals for improving the coherence and knowledge base of American foreign policy making. The problems of defining foreign policy authority, assuring an integrated perspective, and effectively using specialized expertise are best seen in terms of the larger problem of governance in Washington against which all proposals for reform must be abraded.

The British Model: Institutional Reform and Occupied Japan

1982 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-250
Author(s):  
Roger Buckley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
British Occupation ◽  
Economic Experience ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Imperial Japan ◽  
Far Eastern

They order these things differently in England. Such comment on the relevance of the British political and economic experience to postsurrender Japan has been overlooked by students ofthe occupation period. The explanation for this neglect appears to vary on national lines. Research interest into Britain's postwar foreign policy in east Asia has been limited until recently by the availability of government material, while American and later Japanese scholars following in their wake seem reluctant to recognize that in name and sometimes in reality the occupation was an allied venture, since this goes against the grain of American unilateralism. Where there has been note of allied contributions to the occupation the references have tended to be perfunctory. Two recent publications might be cited as representative of this trend among American historians. John Dower's voluminous work on Yoshida Shigeru has little on Yoshida's contacts with British occupation personnel despite frequent references to the premier's anglophilia. Justin Williams's version of the occupation is equally Americocentric. The author regards the Far Eastern Commission's role in Japan's enforced democratization as reactionary ‘because SCAP dealt with the real Japan and the FEC with an imaginary Japan. Long after SCAP became immersed in constructing the democratic Japan of the future, the FEC was still preoccupied with teaching a lesson to the Imperial Japan of old.’ As a challenging quotation useful for those setting examinations on the subject it may bear repetition but not a few British and Commonwealth diplomats might be forgiven for suggesting that the remark could be profitably reversed. The distance between the United States' image of Japan and the truth behind the rhetoric remained a persistent theme of despatches from the British mission in Tokyo (UKLIM) to the Foreign Office throughout this period.

Human Rights and US Foreign Relations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah B. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Considerable Debate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Over Time

In its formulation of foreign policy, the United States takes account of many priorities and factors, including national security concerns, economic interests, and alliance relationships. An additional factor with significance that has risen and fallen over time is human rights, or more specifically violations of human rights. The extent to which the United States should consider such abuses or seek to moderate them has been and continues to be the subject of considerable debate.

Latin American Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Below
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Latin American ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Future Research

Latin American foreign policy has drawn the attention of scholars since the 1960s. Foreign policy–related literature began to surge in the 1980s and 1990s, with a focus on both economic and political development. As development in the region lagged behind that of its northern neighbors, Latin American had to rely on foreign aid, largely from the United States. In addition to foreign aid, two of the most prevalent topics discussed in the literature are trade/economic liberalization and regional economic integration (for example, Mercosur and NAFTA). During and after the Cold War, Latin America played a strategic foreign policy role as it became the object of a rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union hoping to expand their power and/or contain that of the other. This role was also explored in a considerably larger body of research, along with the decision of Latin American nations to diversify their foreign relations in the post–Cold War era. Furthermore, scholars have analyzed different regions/countries that have become new and/or expanded targets of Latin American foreign policy, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Despite the substantial amount of scholarship that has accumulated over the years, a unified theory of Latin American foreign policy remains elusive. Future research should therefore focus on the development of a theory that incorporates the multiple explanatory variables that influence foreign policy formulation and takes into account their relative importance and the effects on each other.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document