Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 (PDF)

9/16/2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
3:59 PM

The Cold War

Conclusions:

1. Containment
2. Domino Theory
a. Vietnam (impact on contemporary military and American foreign policy)
3. Cuban Missile Crisis
4. Impact on U.S.A.
a. Red Scare
b. Vietnam
• Rise in structural realistic theories

Post-WWII
• U.S. much more internationalist
• 3-4% of world population killed in WWII
○ 25 million Soviets killed (14% of pre-war population)
• Allies decide how to handle post-war Europe. Russia granted access to resources in exchange for
their hefty sacrifices, but Soviets failed to allow eastern European countries to determine their
political fate.

Containment
• Patient, long but firm containment of Soviet influence
• Containment as a grand strategy--the US would provide firm and consistent pressure against soviet
efforts toe expand and achieve its goals abroad
• This can involve the use of military force
• Truman Doctrine: aid to Greece against Communists
• Marshall Plan: massive economic aid package for Western Europe for fear of communist takeover
• Containment policy motivated US interest in Korea and lead to massive defense budget expenditure
• NSC-68: top-secret paper declaring containment strategy against Soviets. De-classified in 1975
• Containment led to rise of NATO and rearmament of Germany
• NATO decided to re-arm Germany as a way to prevent Soviet spread
• The containment policy assumes that the Soviets will continue expanding and only way to prevent
this is with "firm and consistent opposition
• Containment is not an active policy on the side of US, rather it is a necessary policy to whatever the
USSR is doing.

Domino Theory
• Related to Containment
• First articulated by Eisenhower in 1954
○ If one indo-Chinese country falls to Communism, every one else in the region will become
Communist. Also potential loss of resources (tin and tungsten from Vietnam)
• Important drive of US to invade Vietnam
• Prevent local communist revolutions, even those not directly related to USSR

Cuban Missile Crisis
• Castro succeeded in overthrowing Batista in 1959. Batista US-supported dictator anti-communism.
Castro fairly communistic
○ Castro nationalized major Cuban assets: sugar
○ Viewed as promoting Communism
• Eisenhower developed plan to train Cuban exiles for invasion of the island to oust Castro.

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○ Launched 1961 (President Kennedy signed off). Bay of Pigs landing.
○ Huge failure: most fighters surrendered or captured/returned to the United States
Soviet Union launched plan to install nuclear weapons on Cuba. 1962
○ Claimed that this was for defense of Cuba, but declassified docs show it was about leverage
with Berlin
Cuban Missile Crisis (US) v. Caribbean Missile Crisis (Cuba)
Major crisis for Kennedy. Creates Excom (famous group of advisors) to deal with the situation.
Two options:
○ Go in immediately and use military force
○ Wait and do everything short of first option
Kennedy enacted a quarantine: no shipments could enter or leave Cuba in a certain radius around
the island.
Crisis settled through negotiation.
○ US secretly agreed to give up Jupiter missiles in Turkey. Also pledged not to invade Cuba. USSR
removes missiles from Cuba.
Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 1

• Theme of exceptionalism
• Grand strategy emerging
(containment)
• Domino Theory drove US policy
during cold war
• Policies still heavily influenced
by Cold War (our policy makers
grew up during Cold War)
○ "Axis of Evil"
• Foreign Policy shaped domestic
life/civil rights and liberties
• To what extent does cold war
reflect "city upon a hill" idea?

removes missiles from Cuba.
• Cuba DID actually have nuclear weapons, and USSR authorized their use for self-defense. Had US
actually attacked Cuba, likely that nuclear action would have been taken.
• *we still have Guantanamo Bay because of Spanish-American war.

Impact on U.S.A.
• Red Scare/McCarthyism
○ Witch hunt in all branches of government and the public sphere
○ Loyalty review boards investigated individuals (especially Hollywood)
○ These investigated people could have been blacklisted and blocked them from being employed
○ Major expansion of FBI
○ Civil liberties infringed upon
• Vietnam
○ No major combat troops until 1968 (despite Domino Theory in 1954)
○ Invasion driven by Domino Theory
○ Extremely divisive war because:
 Extensive aerial bombings of Vietnam/Cambodia and kept Cambodia bombings a secret
 Various protests of the bombings at Kent State. National guard famously fired into the
crowd.
 Viewed as a war of choice. (more divisive than Iraq/Afghanistan because those happened
all at once with an arguable necessity. Vietnam was a trickling of involvement until it was
full blown
 Conscription. College students could get deferment. (elite individuals could escape draft.
It was discriminatory)
 Indiscriminate use of fire (napalm)
○ Major military changes result:
 Counter-insurgency deafened by technology-heavy force (since then)
 War Powers Resolution of 1973: president must consult Congress before going to war

Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 2

9/18/2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
4:07 PM

The 1990s
1. Victims of Future
a. Fukuyama
b. Mearscheimer
c. Huntington
2. Democratic Peace Theory
3. New World Order?
a. Iraq 1992
b. Rwanda 1994
• After end of Cold War, the US faced no more major enemy against which policy could be
developed.

Victims of The Future
Several competing theories of what the New World Order would look like
Francis Fukuyama:
• (1999) end of history theory: end of the Cold War and collapse of Communism
represented mankind's progress toward final evolution. Universalization of western
democracy is final form of government
• States have reached the "end of history" because more preoccupied with economics than
foreign politics.
• Still might be conflict (ethnic violence, terrorism, backward states), but states will no
longer be fighting over ideas.
• Western democracy "beat" fascism, communism and every other idea.
John Mearscheimer:
• (1999) "we miss the cold war" (structural realist-->constructive)
• Without clear adversaries of conflict during the cold War, US will become disordered
because competition during Cold war provided organizing principle for international
politics.
• Without this conflict, the states of Europe will be left o "duke it own on their own"
• Predicts more states will seek to acquire nuclear weapons (particularly Germany)
○ Not necessarily a bad thing. Could be a force to enforce restraint in Europe.
• US will remove itself from NATO and European alliances.
○ Will render Europe ripe for wars again.
Samuel Huntington
• (1993) "The Clash of civilizations"
○ Constructivist international relations theory
• Divisions that matter during the cold War (first world, third world, capitalist, communist)
are no longer relevant. What now matters is differences between civilizations
• Civilization: country or group of countries that share a language. (7 or 8 major. Unsure
about Africa)
• Conflicts will now occur along the fault lines separating two civilizations because:
1. Civilizations will tend to stick together (states will fight for other states within
civilization)
2. Next world war will be one that crosses civilizational boundaries (west vs. the rest)
Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 3

2. Next world war will be one that crosses civilizational boundaries (west vs. the rest)
• West should increase cooperation within its own sphere and exploit conflict of other
civilizations.

Democratic Peace Theory
• Key idea that helped drive Bush's "New World Order" concept
• Emmanuel Kant's essay in 1997: Republican states much less likely to go to war with other
states.
○ Public makes decision to go to war rather than a monarch that doesn't have to pay
for it
• Michael Doyle refined this to say:
○ Democratic states much less likely to go to war with each other, but they will exhibit
extreme violence against states with alternate ideologies.
○ Big debate is not whether this relationship holds but WHY it holds.
• *process to democratize is very violent for countries.

New World Order
• The idea or vision of the world after the cold war that the US was hoping to shape
• Promoting the rule of law, freedom, self-determination
• Responsibility of counties to maintain ideals of democracy
• Expansive force for good, but US also cuts on defense budget
IRAQ'S INVASTION OF KUWAIT (1990)
• Iraq invaded Kuwait in dispute over oil revenues. Little resistance
• This was condemned by the US and most other countries. George H. W. Bush assembled a
force to resist this.
• Us convinced 50 countries to contribute to the campaign including 38 with troops.
○ Allies pledged a lot of money (Saudi Arabia pledged quite a bit), so US didn't spend a
lot of money on this
• Made several attempts at diplomacy, but unable to come to agreement
• UN was also active in condemning invasion of Kuwait, asked for reversal (on Iraq's part).
○ Necessary to preserve world order. US leading coalition to fight for a positive vision
of post-cold war US. Gave Saddam evacuation date. He didn't leave. Bombing
ensued.
• After bombing campaign, there was a ground campaign to drive out Iraqi forces from
Kuwait and it worked really well and lasted only 100 hours.
○ Went so well that soldiers ordered to lay back and allow Iraqi soldiers to retreat in
order to avoid a "turkey shoot"
• Decided not to pursue Saddam in Bagdad to avoid costly and lengthy process. (ironic)
• LEGACY: set the bar for what would be considered acceptable casualties for future
operations. The US and international community placed heavy sanctions on Iraq.
○ Estimated that 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result of sanctions.
• US also encouraged a rebellion in Iraq against their government
○ Didn't work.
• Started looking for WMDs in Iraq because proven that they had an advanced nuclear
project underway.
○ Iraq kicked out weapons inspectors, we sent them back, we bombed, etc.
○ We believed Iraq was lying about their weapons progress.
• Gulf War was test for New World Order ideals, and at the time deemed very successful
RWANDA (1994)
• Hutu population dominated the government and Tutsi minority made up 15% of
population
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•
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population
Early 1990s: Hutu elites blamed country's problems on Tutsis
○ Lots of Civil war in this region
Early 1994: plane carrying Hutu president killed in plane crash
○ Hutus commenced ethnic cleansing of Tutsis. Systematic murders of entire families
in their homes
○ 3/4 of Tutsi population (800,000 people) were killed within weeks of the plane crash.
 Many killed by machetes. Lots of rape.
 Resistance groups still fighting
Bystanders to Genocide article (2001, The Atlantic):
○ Clinton administration knew about this. What could they have done?
○ Clinton later issued an apology declaring he should have done more.
○ United States was afraid of getting bogged down in peace-keeping missions.
 Black Hawk down in Somalia had just happened
○ Clinton never called a high-level meeting to discuss the issue, and Congress never
really made moves on it, either.
Important to contrast this decision with intervention in Kuwait in 1991.

Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 5

9/23/2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
4:04 PM

Institutions and Actors in American Foreign Policy
Constitutional Authority Granted to:
EXECUTIVE BRANCH:
President:
• constitutional authority to make treaties
○ Senate still responsible for reviewing and ratifying treaties
• Acts as commander in chief of armed forces
○ Can use force overseas without prior approval
• Can make executive agreements which do not need congressional approval
○ Ex: establish military base in Philippines, security agreement with Korea, security pledge with
Turkey
1973 War Powers Resolution:
• Passed during Nixon admin, despite his veto
1. In every possible instance, the president must consult with congress before committing troops overseas
2. The president must inform congress within 48 hours if he deploys troops where war is not declared
3. The president must remove US troops within 60 days (90 in special circumstances) if congress doesn't
declare war or adopt a resolution approving the action
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
Congress:
• Has the authority to declare war.
○ Has also authorized "military engagements." What is the difference?
• Raising and maintaining army and navy
• Regulate commerce with foreign nations
Senate:
• Must ratify treaties and make amendments to them.
○ Senate has ratified 1,500 international treaties through the year 2,000
○ Rejected only 21 treaties
• Confirm executive appointments (choices for government positions)
○ Ambassadors
 The Caroline Kennedy being ambassador for Japan even though she does not speak Japanese
or know anything about Japan
House of Representatives:
• Power of the purse: approving or cutting funding for various plans and policies
○ Difficult to actually cut funds in practice.
• House committees on random stuff
○ Steroid use in baseball violates interstate commerce clause
JUDICIAL BRANCH
Supreme Court:
• Constitutional authority to review laws and actions taken
○ Reluctance to deal with foreign policy issues
○ Over last century or two have kind of handed foreign policy issue to the president and his powers

The American Foreign Policy Bureaucracy:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE: EXECUTIVE BRANCH
• Founded in 1789
• Acts as transmission belt between US and other countries
○ Consulates, embassies
○ Represents US in foreign diplomatic settings
• Headed by Secretary of State (John Kerry)
• Repository of knowledge (consulted often on foreign policy)
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD): EXECUTIVE BRANCH
• Established 1947
• Goal to bring military under civilian control
○ Civilian organization. Not staffed by soldiers.
• Headed by chuck Hagel (Secretary of Defense)
• Manage, equip and oversea the branches of the military
• Main job: advice executive on national security issues
• Houses Joint Chiefs of Staff (headed by Martin Dempsey)
○ Group of 5 people (representatives of major armed services)
○ Chairman's job is to advice president on military matters
○ Chairman has no actual command authority. Merely advises
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS):
• Created in 2007
• Effort to house in one chain efforts to defend homeland against terrorism
○ Coordinate anti-terror responses
○ Border control
○ Emergency planning
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL (NSC):
• Advisory group for the president (foreign policy issues)
• Role changed over time
○ Kennedy administration had close friends in position
○ Others have made group of knowledgeable advisors
• Coordinate advice and policies from various parts of government in one meeting
• Attended by pres, vice-pres, sec of state, chairman of defense, chairman of joint chiefs, chief of staff, big
niggas
• Extent to which this organization influenced pres is unclear-> later revealed in presidential memoirs
INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: more than a dozen… only focusing on a few
• Director of National Intelligence (DNI):
• Central intelligence Agency (CIA):
○ Collect intel from open and clandestine sources in foreign places (formally, anyway)
○ Most of what they really do is troll through newspapers and investigate social media.

Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 6

Does Obama need congressional approval to deploy troops to Syria?

What counts as war? Do you have to wait for violence to break out
before war is declared?

Libyan Revolution
• Forces closing around Benghazi.
• U.S. aided NATO in enforcing no-fly zone over Libya in order to
prevent Gadhafi-fueled massacre
• Could Obama use force and continue to use force without
congressional approval?
○ Supreme Court ruled that this is okay because this is in the
national interest. Prior approval not required in the limited
operation. U.S. ground troops not involved.
○ 60 day limit passed. 90 day limit passed. White House
maintained they did not need congressional approval for this
action.
○ Past presidents have done similar things

INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY: more than a dozen… only focusing on a few
• Director of National Intelligence (DNI):
• Central intelligence Agency (CIA):
○ Collect intel from open and clandestine sources in foreign places (formally, anyway)
○ Most of what they really do is troll through newspapers and investigate social media.
○ Also have conducted true covert ops (Bay of Pigs)
○ Drone program where they have their own drones
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
○ Internal issues
 Anti-terrorism
 Intel
• Other Agencies with Intelligence Capabilities/Responsibilities:
○ NSA (within DOD)
 Formally they do signals intelligence
○ National recon office (within DOD)
 Run recon satellites
○ National Geospatial intel
 Coordinates

Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 7

9/25/2014: Thank you, Alex Hopper
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
4:08 PM

Power and Diplomacy
• Power as a resource
• Power as relationship
• Hard power
• Soft power
• Obama's Cairo speech
• Diplomacy-Bilateral, Multilateral, Summit, Public

Power as a Resource
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•
•
•

A commodity that a state or individual possesses
This what we mean when we say that the YUS has more power than China or Canada
"balance of power"
This is a realist view of power

Power as a relationship between two or more actos
• Robert Dahl "A has power over B to the extent that A can get B to do something it
normally wouldn't do
• Power is a causal relationship, so the US is powerful because having material resources
allow US to convince others to change their behavior
• Military power will transfer economic power...etc.
• Resources are only useful in terms of how they let you influence another state
• Power is perfectly fungible. Realist thinks that military power translates to the ability
to get what you want in all areas.
• Others argue that power is not so easily transferable.
○ Ex: Japan has the world's 3rd largest economy, but no military to project power
overseas
○ If a state is most powerful, does that give it the right to always get its way?
○ Who or what has the most power over you (or an actor) depends on the specific
area (economic, military, etc)
○ In different realism, different state have different amounts of power

Hard Power
• Involves the use of punishment or threats of punishment, or the promise of rewards in
order to coerce another actor to do something
• Very active
• International politics: use of military qualifies as a use of hard power
• Usually hard power is active, visible display of resources. Economic, military
• Hard power can be used economically by threatening access to economic markets,
blockades, sanctions
• Also bribes, rewards, or promise for the future
• "carrots and sticks" metaphor

Soft Power
• "attraction and persuasion"
○ Attract and persuade one actor to change their behavior
• The target of soft power is changing their behavior not because of threats, but because
of the appeal of what you are doing
• Not openly coercive
• Soft power is usually much longer acting than hard power
• Diplomacy is a common method of soft power
• Efforts such as diplomacy (Peace CORPS) are soft power
• The appeal of one state's institutions or ideals to persuade another actor or state

Smart Power
• States should try and combine soft and hard power resources
• President Obama Speech in Cairo (2009) as an example of state exercising soft power

Diplomacy
• When Obama came into office one of his major promises was a "return to diplomacy"
• The US would now seek to engage in dialogue with countries around the world
• Diplomacy: the process of engaging in dialogue, bargaining and negotiations with
another country
○ Least flashy of methods of US foreign policy, but is the most common method of
forming foreign policy
the day-to-day operations of international politics.
Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 8

○
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the day-to-day operations of international politics.
"low cost" way of influencing states?
Sometimes increased diplomacy can make things worse
usually has to involve two-way communication
used to be considered the ultimate measure of a state's power (Morgenthau)
May call on soft power, but can also include the use of hard power

Actors of Diplomacy?
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•

State department-staffs embassies, passports, etc.
Ambassadors to the UN are also involved in diplomacy
Diplomacy can involve the president and other high level heads of state
Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, diplomacy involves military figures (Department
of Defense)

Four Types of Diplomacy:
1. Bilateral Diplomacy: any direct negotiations between two and only two countries. It
can occur at any level of government. This has become increasingly popular after the
Cold War. Bilateral diplomacy can occur between adversaries and allies.
2. Multilateral Diplomacy: between 2 or more states. United Nations is primary source of
multilateral diplomacy
a. Conferences are an example of multilateral diplomacy
b. Both bi and multilateral occurs at the same time on the same level
3. Summit Diplomacy: Negotiations specifically between heads of state. Presidents,
Premiers, Prime Ministers.
a. Very high profile
b. Emphasis on personal interactions between leaders of countries
c. Tends to bring tension to issues, so useful in negotiating high level concerns.
However, does not always improve upon these concerns
d. Issues are specific (economic agreements, arms agreements)
e. A summit can be two or more heads of state
4. Public Diplomacy: involved leaders making statements or undertaking actions that
indirectly act on the people of another country. Public diplomacy is out in the open.
Can be considered as propaganda by target states. Soft power very applicable here.
• Diplomacy occurs on several different issues between countries at the same time. Not
just single issue.

Class Notes by MIDTERM 10.16.2014 Page 9