From Vietnam to Iraq: American Elites' Views on the Use of Military Force

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 215-231
Author(s):  
Gwen Moore ◽  
Stephanie Mack
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Military Involvement ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Long Time

AbstractIn this paper we present trends in US elites' opinions on the use of military force abroad in the period from the end of US military involvement in Vietnam in 1975 to 2004 during the 'war on terror.' With data from quadrennial surveys of US elites' foreign policy attitudes sponsored by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations since 1975, we ask whether elites have become more militaristic or whether such views have been a long term characteristic of US elites. We find support for the view of United States leaders as prone to the use of military might, even without the support of allies. Yet the findings also indicate that American elites have held this military view of reality for a long time.

scholarly journals ‘Defensive Liberal Wars’: The Global War on Terror and the Return of Illiberalism in American Foreign Policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (53) ◽  
pp. 99-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashmi Singh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Military Involvement ◽  
Global War

This paper offers an analysis of the illiberal practices and discourse of the Global War on Terror (GWoT) and demonstrates how the United States of America used the liberal argument as a qualitative metric of its success and failure in the GWoT. I argue that ‘the othering’ of Salafi Jihadists as well the full military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq were both philosophically rooted in the liberal thinking of Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill, which have traditionally guided US foreign policy. More significantly, these liberal philosophies of history and international relations hold within them the seeds of illiberalism by depicting non-liberal, undemocratic societies/organisations as ‘barbaric’ – and as such prime candidates for intervention and regime change. Predicated upon this logic, the discourse of the GWoT framed Al Qaeda as a key existential threat to not only the United States but also the ‘civilised world’ in general and one which required a ‘liberal defensive war’ in response. It was the successful securitisation of Al Qaeda that essentially enabled the United States to adopt deeply illiberal policies to counter this so-called existential threat by using any means at its disposal.

Concepts of Foreign Policy

Worldview ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Quincy Wright
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
United States Foreign Policy ◽  
Armed Services Committee ◽  
Armed Services

There are a number of reasons to believe that fundamental changes are necessary in United States foreign policy, and some of these reasons have been developed in recent statements by Senator William J. Fulbright (Arkansas) of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Richard Russell (Georgia) of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Frank Church (Idaho), Senator Wayne Morse (Oregon) and others. In such a reconsideration, the basic objectives, the means for achieving them, and the limitations of American capability should be considered.

scholarly journals U.S. War Powers and the Potential Benefits of Comparativism

2019 ◽  
pp. 752-770
Author(s):  
Curtis A. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Force ◽  
War Powers ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Legal Methodology

This chapter describes U.S. law governing the use of military force, and it considers the potential value of comparative study of how different countries regulate the issue. As the chapter notes, there is significant uncertainty and debate in the United States over the distribution of authority concerning the use of force—in particular, over whether and to what extent military actions must be authorized by Congress. Because courts in the modern era have generally declined to review the legality of military actions, disputes over this issue have had to be resolved, as a practical matter, through the political process. For those who believe that it is important to have legislative involvement in decisions to use force, the political process has not proven to be satisfactory: presidents have often used military force without obtaining congressional approval, and Congress generally has done little to resist such presidential unilateralism. The United States is not the only country to struggle with regulating the domestic authority to use military force. This issue of foreign relations law is common to constitutional democracies, and nations vary substantially in how they have addressed it. Comparative study of such approaches should be of inherent interest to scholars and students, including those trying to better understand the U.S. approach. Whether and to what extent such study should also inform the interpretation or revision of U.S. law presents a more complicated set of questions that are affected in part by one’s legal methodology and how the comparative materials are being invoked.

Colored and White Atoms

2021 ◽  
pp. 92-122
Author(s):  
Jacob Darwin Hamblin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Atomic Energy ◽  
Free World ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
At Home

As with its overall foreign policy, the United States framed its atomic energy offerings as part of the global struggle between the “free world” and the communists, a division that masked the firm US military alignment with colonial powers. The United States continued that framing even as nations such as India and Ghana tried to forge a different path that associated atomic energy with the struggle for national or even racial liberation. The specter haunting Eisenhower and his successors was the emergence of a bloc of countries whose concerns were primarily racial and anti-colonial. Given the reality of racial segregation at home and the government’s close alliance with colonial powers of Europe, such a framing would put the United States on the side of the old colonial masters. American politicians utilized the promise of atomic energy to dim such perceptions amid numerous racially charged challenges in the 1950s and ’60s.

Is there an emerging left-wing foreign policy in the United States?

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-48
Author(s):  
Aaron Ettinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Foreign Policies

Is there a left-wing foreign policy emerging in the United States? The rise of an energized and assertive left wing of the Democratic Party, and a receptive constituency within the electorate, has opened space for new political possibilities at home. In the foreign policy realm, leftist internationalism is making compelling arguments about new directions. However, there are limitations to the possible realization of a left-wing foreign policy in the US. While candidates like Sanders and Warren are distinctive in a left-wing foreign policy worldview, the practical implications of their foreign policies are consistent with post-Cold War practice. There are two important exceptions: in trade policy and in their positions on the use of military force. Here they mark a sharp break from the liberal internationalist mainstream. This paper outlines five broad principles of left internationalism, assesses the foreign policy positions of leading Democratic candidates for the 2020 nomination, and explores the long-term prospects of left-wing foreign policy in the US after 2020.

LGBTQ Issues and US Foreign Relations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Tiemeyer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Sexual Behaviors ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

The impact of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) issues on U.S. foreign relations is an understudied area, and only a handful of historians have addressed these issues in articles and books. Encounters with unexpected and condemnable (to European eyes) sexual behaviors and gender comportment arose from the first European forays into North America. As such, subduing heterodox sexual and gender expression has always been part of the colonizing endeavor in the so-called New World, tied in with the mission of civilizing and Christianizing the indigenous peoples that was so central to the forging of the United States and pressing its territorial expansion across the continent. These same impulses accompanied the further U.S. accumulation of territory across the Pacific and the Caribbean in the late 19th century, and they persisted even longer and further afield in its citizens’ missionary endeavors across the globe. During the 20th century, as the state’s foreign policy apparatus grew in size and scope, so too did the notions of homosexuality and transgender identity solidify as widely recognizable identity categories in the United States. Thus, it is during the 20th and 21st centuries, with ever greater intensity as the decades progressed, that one finds important influences of homosexuality and gender diversity on U.S. foreign policy: in immigration policies dating back to the late 19th century, in the Lavender Scare that plagued the State Department during the Truman and Eisenhower presidencies, in more contemporary battles between religious conservatives and queer rights activists that have at times been exported to other countries, and in the increasing intersections of LGBTQ rights issues and the War on Terror that has been waged primarily in the Middle East since September 11, 2001.

Autonomy and Foreign Policy: the Brazilian Case on the Fight Against Terrorism in the Lula administration

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Luiza Zaia
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Realist Approach ◽  
Global War ◽  
Brazilian Case

This paper examines Brazilian Foreign Policy during Lula’s administration and how the concept of autonomy has shaped Brazil’s stance on alleged terrorist activities within its borders. By using the Neoclassical Realist approach, this article explores how autonomy has allowed for Brazil to oppose the pressures of the United States’ led Global War on Terror between 2003-2010. Autonomy has worked as an intervening variable that allowed for Brazilian Foreign Policy, to some extent, to take its own direction in matters of security. 

Simulated Local and Remote Biophysical Effects of Afforestation over the Southeast United States in Boreal Summer*

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (13) ◽  
pp. 4511-4522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang-Shan Chen ◽  
Michael Notaro ◽  
Zhengyu Liu ◽  
Yongqiang Liu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Surface Cooling ◽  
Local Cooling ◽  
Southeast United States ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Biophysical Effects

Abstract Afforestation has been proposed as a climate change mitigation strategy by sequestrating atmospheric carbon dioxide. With the goal of increasing carbon sequestration, a Congressional project has been planned to afforest about 18 million acres by 2020 in the Southeast United States (SEUS), the Great Lake states, and the Corn Belt states. However, biophysical feedbacks of afforestation have the potential to counter the beneficial climatic consequences of carbon sequestration. To assess the potential biophysical effects of afforestation over the SEUS, the authors designed a set of initial value ensemble experiments and long-term quasi-equilibrium experiments in a fully coupled Community Climate System Model, version 3.5 (CCSM3.5). Model results show that afforestation over the SEUS not only has a local cooling effect in boreal summer [June–August (JJA)] at short and long time scales but also induces remote warming over adjacent regions of the SEUS at long time scales. Precipitation, in response to afforestation, increases over the SEUS (local effect) and decreases over adjacent regions (remote effect) in JJA. The local surface cooling and increase in precipitation over SEUS in JJA are hydrologically driven by the changes in evapotranspiration and latent heat flux. The remote surface warming and decrease in precipitation over adjacent regions are adiabatically induced by anomalous subsidence. Our results suggest that the planned afforestation efforts should be developed carefully by taking account of short-term (local) and long-term (remote) biophysical effects of afforestation.

Diplomacy in the Atomic Age: Part I

1959 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen D. Kertesz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Atomic Age ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Bilateral Negotiations ◽  
To Come ◽  
Political Units ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Inter State

Diplomacy in the broadest sense is the conduct of foreign relations between politically independent entities through bilateral negotiations, multilateral conferences, or through the forum of multilateral organizations. Although modern means of transportation and communication have greatly diminished the importance of distances and boundaries, for a long time to come man will continue to live in separate political units called states. And in the foreseeable future, inter-state relations will be handled through foreign policy, the executive agents of which are diplomats.

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