Introduction: “The True Watersheds in Human Affairs Are Seldom Spotted”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Dominant Set ◽  
Drone Warfare

This introductory chapter discusses how the CIA's use of armed drones has garnered increased attention from academia and investigative journalists, particularly those working in the foreign policy, defense, and legal fields. This is due in equal parts to the secrecy surrounding their use, the technological novelty of their unmanned operation, and concerns over the agency's suitability to undertake lethal operations. While disagreements over the putative military benefits, ethical downsides, and legal complexities of the CIA's campaign are common, a number of persistent themes in media and scholarly discussions have emerged over recent years, materializing into a dominant set of commonly held views about the agency's execution of drone warfare, many of which are challenged in the book.

Know Thyself: What Is “Wilsonianism”?

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
History Of

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Wilsonianism, which comprises a set of ideas called American liberal internationalism. More than a century after Woodrow Wilson became president of the United States, his country is still not certain how to understand the important legacy for the country's foreign policy of the tradition that bears his name. Wilsonianism remains a living ideology whose interpretation continues either to motivate, or to serve as a cover for, a broad range of American foreign policy decisions. However, if there is no consensus on what the tradition stands for, or, worse, if there is a consensus but its claims to be part of the tradition are not borne out by the history of Wilsonianism from Wilson's day until the late 1980s, then clearly a debate is in order to provide clarity and purpose to American thinking about world affairs today.

Introduction

Basic Rights ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Henry Shue
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Basic Rights ◽  
Subsistence Rights ◽  
To Receive

This introductory chapter provides an overview of basic rights. The wisdom of a U.S. foreign policy that includes attention to “human rights” depends heavily upon which rights are in practice the focus of the attention. The major international documents on human rights include dozens of kinds of rights, often artificially divided into “civil and political” and “economic, social, and cultural” rights. U.S. foreign policy probably could not, and almost certainly should not, concern itself with the performance of other governments in honoring every one of these internationally recognized human rights. The policy must in practice assign priority to some rights over others. It is not entirely clear so far either which rights are receiving priority or which rights ought to receive priority in U.S. foreign policy. The purpose of this book is to present the reasons why the most fundamental core of the so-called “economic rights,” which can be called subsistence rights, ought to be among those that receive priority. The chapter then presents some divergent indications of what the priorities actually are.

Introduction

Orchestration ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
James Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Economic Statecraft ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Interest Alignment

This introductory chapter develops a new conceptual framework for understanding how China’s complex domestic structures influence the practice and effectiveness of China’s economic statecraft. China’s orchestration approach integrates three core elements: the “nesting” of orchestration tactics within its hierarchical structures; the use of lucrative “tournaments” designed to attract eager participants while facilitating oversight and discipline; and designing economic statecraft initiatives to maximize interest alignment between central leaders’ foreign policy goals and the interests of key implementing actors. The chapter concludes with the book’s research methodology and a book overview.

Introduction

The Last Card ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Timothy Andrews Sayle ◽  
Hal Brands
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Breaking Point ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
The Us ◽  
Saddam Hussein ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
Desperate Attempt

This introductory chapter provides a background of George W. Bush's decision to deploy more American troops to Iraq in 2007, a desperate attempt to bring order to chaos, and to salvage his administration's signature foreign policy achievement: the ouster of Iraq's tyrannical despot, Saddam Hussein, nearly four years before. Bush's speech on January 10, 2007, and the change in policy it announced were hardly the work of spontaneous initiative, but instead marked the end of a long and secretive process designed to determine whether and how to change the course of a failing war in Iraq. The president's decision had not been easy. In fact, it had been resisted by most of his advisors, including many of his top military commanders, who feared greater loss of lives and treasure, and ultimately defeat. That was a sentiment Bush shared as well. Iraq stood on the precipice of civil war as 2007 began, but it was hardly certain that more American troops and a new strategy could improve conditions on the ground. Many advisors feared that putting more US forces in Iraq would not turn the war around and would instead weaken American positions elsewhere around the globe while straining the US military to the breaking point. Bush and his top aides thus recognized that “the surge” constituted a major strategic gamble, as well as their final chance to restore a floundering US project in Iraq.

Five Approaches to the Study of Indian Foreign Policy

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanti Bajpai
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Protracted Conflict ◽  
Dominant Set ◽  
Indian Foreign Policy

The study of Indian foreign policy goes back to the late 1940s and has resulted in a large amount of publishing in both India and abroad. What are the major approaches to the study of Indian foreign policy? By ‘approach’ is meant a broad orientation in a field of study, in particular the leading questions and interpretive lenses. An approach is not a theory; it is closer to the notion of ‘paradigm’. It encompasses the dominant set of questions and the ways of answering those questions that prevail in an intellectual field. In this case, Indian foreign policy studies has been substantially focused on relations with Pakistan, China, and the United States and why India has been in ‘protracted conflict’ with these three powers.

Introduction: America’s Pacific century?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jude Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Catching Up ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Us

This introductory chapter outlines the US shift in foreign policy to focus on Asia and China and the reasons for it. It considers the degree and speed with which China is catching up with the US economically and militarily and how this is working through into increased political and diplomatic influence. It considers how this is accelerating the long-term decline in US global preeminence, by giving additional leverage to countries that do not want to go along with the behests of the US, whether economically or politically. It summarises the initiatives that the US has begun to put in place to respond to this challenge - from its shift in military focus from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the TPP – and how China has responded. Having outlined the parameters of these global shifts, the chapter explains the structure of the book, and the questions it will address.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Melvyn P. Leffler
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
National Security ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Democratic Capitalism ◽  
Perception Of Threat ◽  
The Individual

This introductory chapter chronicles how the author's study of American foreign policy over the decades gravitated toward an analysis of the meaning of national security. This was not intentional. It resulted from a long struggle to wrestle with evidence that led to attempts to synthesize the three levels of analysis that scholars of international relations often talk about: the individual, the domestic/state, and the international. By using the concept of national security, the author was able to analyze the motives shaping U.S. policymakers, examine their perception of threat and opportunity, assess their willingness to incur commitments and responsibilities abroad, study their readiness to employ military power, and gain an appreciation of how they saw the links between external configurations of power and the preservation of democratic capitalism at home. As the author embraced complexity, studied the evolving literature on grand strategy, and grappled with contingency, his empathy for the policymakers grew.

scholarly journals Dialectical Moralism, National Interest, and Foreign Policy: The Case of United States and Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nadeem Mirza ◽  
Summar Iqbal Babar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The World ◽  
Drone Warfare

US foreign policy throughout the history is replete with the moralistic rhetoric – pursuance of American moral principles embodied in the declaration of independence, constitution, and in the repeated doctrines of the American presidents. Yet the careful examination of its foreign policy reveals that it remained mostly amoral in nature, that is, devoid of any moral or immoral essence. It has mostly pursued the national self-interest which remained dynamic because of the changing geopolitical environment of the region and the world. Use of religion since Pakistan’s independence to align with it against godless communist Soviet Union, neglecting Pakistan’s nuclear program because of the greater national self-interest during 1980s, supporting military governments in Pakistan while being the biggest proponent of democracy in the world, use of drone warfare while violating the sovereignty and international law, are few of the amoralistic policies being pursued by the United States towards Pakistan. The study concludes that the United States have/will continue to use the moral rhetoric as a leverage to pressurise or entice Pakistan to do its bidding and in the case of failing, to utilise the same rhetoric as a tool to distance itself from Pakistan, when its national interests are served.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Anindya Raychaudhuri
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Historical Outline

This chapter provides a brief historical outline of the events of partition, and an introduction to the theoretical framework that underpins the book’s central themes. The historical context is read through the lens of the politics of memory and representation—in particular focusing on the ways in which state-endorsed narratives of history are used to reinforce contemporary domestic and foreign policy. The chapter begins to outline the ways in the narratives that are the focus of this book engage with and challenge such “official” views of partition. This introductory chapter also sets out the current scholarship of partition—concentrating on memory and oral history—and marks out the space in existing scholarship where this book sits.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Right

This introductory chapter highlights Francesco Guicciardini's perspectives on international politics and foreign policy. Guicciardini frequently engages in the analysis of political situations through pairs of opposing speeches, one in favour and one against any given policy on any given issue. As a whole, they constitute a remarkable collection of debates on war, peace, alliance, and the like — in short, key issues in international affairs. Action takes place in various contexts: different Florentine institutions, the Venetian senate, the French royal council, the papal Curia, and the imperial council. The structure of the debates is always straightforward: the first speaker argues that X is the right policy and Y the wrong one; the second speaker argues the opposite. Thus, each criticises the policy advice of the other, and each supports what the other opposes.

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