Forcing the President's Hand: How the US Congress Shapes Foreign Policy through Sanctions Legislation

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-416
Author(s):  
Jordan Tama
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Diplomacy ◽  
Foreign Governments

Abstract Given the US president's leading role in many areas of American foreign policy, one might expect the president to prevail in executive-legislative clashes over economic sanctions. In this paper, I show that, with surprising frequency, US legislators overcome presidential opposition to their sanctions proposals and induce the president to take foreign policy actions that he or she would not otherwise take. My argument explains why the president often signs and implements sanctions legislation despite considering it inadvisable, as well as how sanctions legislation can influence foreign policy actions, the behavior of foreign governments, or international diplomacy in other ways. I support the argument with descriptive statistics based on an original data set of over a hundred legislative sanctions proposals and a case study of the effects of legislative initiatives targeting Iran over a period of two decades. The paper's findings show that legislative activity is more important than some previous research on sanctions and US foreign policy suggests.

scholarly journals The Future of US-Chinese Relations under the Administration of Donald Trump

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 60-75
Author(s):  
V. Y. Vorobiev
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Defense Strategies ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Gdp Gap

Long-standing objectives of U.S. foreign policy remain unaltered regardless of the person incumbent. The US elite unanimously see the purpose of maintaining its leading role in international relations. It is still possible that there will be some corrections the American foreign policy but they will not alter the general line. Donald Trump won the US presidential elections. He announced one of his strategic lines in foreign policy is to deter China. From the author's point of view, is to have complex consequences in economics, foreign-policy and defense strategies. The economic growth of China is declining, albeit for the past decades China became the second world power. The USA, at the same time, successfully overcame the consequences of financial crisis 2009. Nowadays, the GDP gap between considering countries is growing again and China is unlikely to reduce it in the short term. It is possible that during the diplomatic negotiations, the USA will reduce its influence in some world regions: they are ready to redistribute the spheres responsibility and demonstrate their attentive position to the interests of other state. The US-China relationships exist in changeable and dynamic forms and in this context, China relates to the stability of its partnership with Russia.

scholarly journals Media and Foreign Policy on Pak-Afghan Relations (1997-2005): The Role of US and Pakistani Press

2020 ◽  
Vol Volume 4 (Issue 2) ◽  
pp. 454-477
Author(s):  
Ashraf Iqbal ◽  
Dr. Tanveer Hussain ◽  
Javed
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Washington Post ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After

The main purpose of the present research is to investigate Pak-Afghan relations in the editorials of US newspapers, The Washington Post & The New York Times and Pakistani newspapers Dawn & The News related to the following issues during the period 1997-2005; A) US as a factor in Pak-Afghan relation, B) Coverage of Islam/Muslims regarding war on terrorism, C) Pakistan’s stance on Pak-Afghan bilateral relations, and D) US’s stance on Pak-Afghan bilateral relations. The time period to be examined in this proposed study spans over eight years regarding the editorial coverage of Pak-Afghan relations in the US and Pakistani leading English Press. Triangulation method based on qualitative and quantitative method was used to conduct the present research. The results show that the editorial contents of USA and Pakistani newspapers were not different regarding Pak-Afghan relations before and after 9/11. The incident of 9/11 changed the American foreign policy towards developing and least developing nations especially Muslims states like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran etc. Pakistani press highlighted the issues regarding the Pak-Afghan relations before and after 9/11 as a favorable and conducive, related to Muslim/Islam regarding war on terrorism. The study suggested that instead of the focus on military resolution of the different problems, rather social bilateral negations should be prioritized which would be long lasting and full of mutual respects and honor.

scholarly journals Features of the US Foreign Policy Towards the Central Asian States

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-81
Author(s):  
E. V. Kryzhko ◽  
P. I. Pashkovsky
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Us

The article examines the features of the US foreign policy towards the Central Asian states in the post-bipolar period. The imperatives and constants, as well as the transformation of Washington’s Central Asian policy, have been characterized. It is shown that five Central Asian states have been in the focus of American foreign policy over the past thirty years. In the process of shaping the US foreign policy in Central Asia, the presence of significant reserves of energy and mineral resources in the region was of great importance. Therefore, rivalry for Caspian energy resources and their transportation routes came to the fore. In addition to diversifying transport and logistics flows and supporting American companies, the US energy policy in Central Asia was aimed at preventing the restoration of Russia’s economic and political influence, as well as countering the penetration of China, which is interested in economic cooperation with the countries of the region. During the period under review, the following transformation of mechanisms and means of Washington’s policy in the Central Asian direction was observed: the policy of “exporting democracy”; attempts to “nurture” the pro-American elite; striving to divide states into separate groups with permanent “appointment” of leaders; involvement in a unified military system to combat terrorism; impact on the consciousness of the population in order to destabilize geopolitical rivals; building cooperation on a pragmatic basis due to internal difficulties and external constraints. Central Asian states sympathized with the American course because of their interest in technology and investment. At the same time, these states in every possible way distanced themselves from the impulses of “democratization” from Washington. Kazakhstan was a permanent regional ally of the United States, to which Uzbekistan was striving to join. The second echelon in relations with the American side was occupied by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. A feature of the positions of the Central Asian countries is the maximum benefit from cooperation with Washington while building good-neighborly relations with Russia and China, which is in dissonance with the regional imperatives of the United States. In the future, the American strategy in Central Asia will presumably proceed from the expediency of attracting regional allies and stimulating contradictions in order to contain geopolitical rivals in the region.

7. America in the 1990s: searching for purpose

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dumbrell
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
External Environment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
First Year ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
International Environment ◽  
The Us ◽  
Internal Pressures

This chapter examines how the external environment of US foreign policy and internal pressures on policy makers both shifted radically in the 1990s. Internationally, the ‘long 1990s’ were characterized by intense democratic possibility. Yet they were also years of atavistic negativity and irrationality, as seen in Rwanda and Bosnia. Two questions arise: First, how should the United States respond to a world which was apparently both rapidly integrating and rapidly disintegrating? Second, was it inevitable, desirable, or even possible that the US should provide global leadership? Before discussing various approaches to these questions, the chapter considers the wider international environment of apparent unipolarity and globalization. It also analyzes the development of American foreign policy under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, focusing in particular on the so-called ‘Kennan sweepstakes’ during the first year of Clinton’s presidency as well as Clinton’s turn towards unilateralism and remilitarization.

6. American foreign policy during the Cold War

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Saull
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Containment Policy ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines US foreign policy during the Cold War, beginning with an overview of the main historical developments in US policy. It first considers the origins of the Cold War and containment, focusing on the breakdown of the wartime alliance between the United States and the USSR, the emergence of US–Soviet diplomatic hostility and geopolitical confrontation, and how the Cold War spread beyond Europe. It then explains how the communist revolution in China in 1949 and the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 propelled the US towards a much bolder and more ambitious containment policy. It also looks at US military interventions in the third world, the US role in the ending of the Cold War, and the geopolitical, ideational, and/or socio-economic factors that influenced American foreign policy during the Cold War. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the dual concerns of US foreign policy.

A Paradigm Shift in American Foreign Policy

Worldview ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 42-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Petersen Spiro
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Major Change ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
International Diplomacy ◽  
United Nations General Assembly

Human rights is at present a.much discussed issue in American foreign policy. What has not been discussed is the extent to which this represents a major change in American foreign policy. Consider: In 1974 the Secretary of State devoted exactly one sentence to human rights in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1975 there were four paragraphs of fairly standard rhetoric, apart from the proposal to establish a U.N. study to determine how widely torture was used as an officially sanctioned instrument of government. In addition there was an intimation of change in this sentence: "There is no longer any dispute that international human rights are on the agenda of international diplomacy." Yet there was then no evidence that Secretary Kissinger had changed the approach characterizing his tenure in office; nameiy, that American foreign policy cannot concern itself with the domestic policies of the governments with which it deals, even if they entail gross violations of human rights. We can, he insisted, only use private methods of persuasion and pressure. Foreign policy deals with the foreign policies of governments.

scholarly journals Trump, Populism, and American Foreign Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Wojczewski
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Lacanian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Self And Other

Abstract Employing a discursive understanding of populism and combing it with insights of poststructuralist international relations theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis, this article examines the conceptual links between foreign policy and populist forms of identity construction, as well as the ideological force that populism can unfold in the realm of foreign policy. It conceptualizes populism and foreign policy as distinct discourses that constitute collective identities by relating Self and Other. Identifying different modes of Othering, the article illustrates its arguments with a case study on the United States under Donald Trump and shows how the Trumpian discourse has used foreign policy as a platform for the (re)production of a populist-nationalist electoral coalition. Unlike common conceptions of populism as an ideology that misrepresents reality, the article argues that the discourse develops its ideological appeal by obscuring the discursive construction of social reality and thereby promising to satisfy the subject's desire for a complete and secure identity.

No Blank Check

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Müller
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Congressional Debates ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legislative Branch ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
Counterterrorism Policy

Much of the academic debate surrounding the War on Terror focuses on presidential power after 9/11. In this context, the role of the US Congress in directing the outcome of national security policies is often overlooked. This book illustrates how Congress played a key role in the War on Terror during Barack Obama’s presidency. Instead of arguing that Congress was a compliant bystander and incapable of making successful counterterrorism policy, the legislative branch did more than hand the president a blank check. In using an innovative data set on congressional debates and policymaking, the book shows that the interaction between congressional entrepreneurs and senior committee/party leaders determined the outcome of controversial policies, including drone warfare, Guantanamo and the NSA’s mass surveillance activities.

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