The Presidency and Foreign Policy

5 December 2011

Announcements

• Essays should be available for pickup from the Politics office within a week.

• Final exam; review sheet

Presidents and Military Operations

– Abraham Lincoln first to action based on an expanded interpretation of commander in chief.

– Theodore Roosevelt: sent ships to Japan without Congressional approval of cost

– Not since WWII has Congress officially declared war.– As part of the Cold War, the U.S. fought two conventional wars

in Korea and Vietnam– Truman fought the Korean War without any congressional

declaration at all.– The U.S. has also engaged in military operations (since WWII)

in Laos, Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Libya, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Voters’ Focus on Presidents

• Prior to the Civil War presidents seldom acted on their own on military matters; Following WW II,

• Voters now expect president to act in area of foreign affairs.• Support the president in crisis situations.

– “Rally ‘round the flag” effect: The tendency for the public to back presidents in moments of crisis.

– While voters are supportive initially, they tend to demand quick results, and often forget foreign policy accomplishments, particularly if domestic economic issues become concerns.

What the public care about

• Most people do not care about foreign policy• It is remote and people have not developed opinions on issues• There are more dramatic events on the international scene than

on the domestic scene and opinion• As a consequence opinion can be quite volatile

The Cost of War

• How does the public react?

The Rally-Around-the-Flag Effect

• Wars tend to start with a surge of popular support• The human costs of a conflict provide a powerful explanation

of wartime opinion• Causalities send a signal that the war is not going well

Example of Rally events

Link to Washington Post Polls

Approval of Bush/Blair (2001-2005)

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George W. Bush

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Saddam Hussein captured

UK election

Wars and Causalities

The ‘Theory’ of the two presidencies

• Presidents have more constitutional discretion with respect to foreign policy (aided by SC decisions such as Curtiss-Wright 1936 on arms sales). But, presidents may not act contrary to the expressed will of Congress.

• Foreign policy requires fast action and focused responsibility and neither interest groups nor members of Congress compete with the president as much over foreign affairs as over domestic affairs.

• Members of congress may often acquiesce in foreign affairs.• Interest groups are less focused on foreign affairs.

Vietnam

• Focused attention on the issue of executive authority• Eisenhower and Kennedy sent “advisors”• Johnson asked for Tonkin Bay Resolution

– Congress overwhelmingly authorized response to attack with armed force after North Vietnamese attacked several U.S. destroyers

– Gave president the authority “to take all necessary measures” to repel any attacks and to “prevent further aggression.”

– Resolution was legal basis for a war that would last 8 more years but based on misinformation from the Johnson administration. In reality the destroyers had invaded N. Vietnam’s territorial waters.

War Powers Resolution

• 1973 congressional resolution requiring the president to notify Congress formally upon ordering U.S. troops into military action.– Troops must be withdrawn unless Congress approves the

presidential decision within 60 days after notice of the military action has been received.

War Powers Resolution & 9/11

• At Bush’s request, Congress passes war on terrorism resolution in 2001.– One dissenting vote in the House.– President authorized to “use all necessary and appropriate

force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept 11, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism.”

– No limit placed on time period in which president may act.– Second resolution focused continuing threat posed by Iraq.

But required Bush to exhaust “diplomatic or other peaceful means” of resolving the conflict prior to resorting to force.

Treaty Power

• Treaties are official agreements with foreign countries that are ratified by the Senate (by 2/3rds).

• Because a small number of Senators can block a treaty, Presidents opt instead for executive agreements

• These are agreements with foreign countries that require only a presidential signature. Power not found explicitly in the Constitution.

• Most executive agreements either are extensions of treaties ratified by the Senate or involve routine presidential actions that have been authorized by Congress.

Use of Executive Agreements

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (SALT)

• Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a sweeping new arms reduction pact in April of 2010 that pledges to reduce the stockpile of deployed, strategic nuclear weapons in both countries and commits the old Cold War adversaries to new procedures to verify which weapons each country possesses.

• The Treaty required Senate ratification (2/3rds support needed) which required Republican support.

• Polls indicated that 82 percent of Americans supported ratification.• The ratification was the first major treaty passed in the Senate in

almost a decade.