• Foreign policy definition: a set of political goals that aims to outline how a particular state will interact with others
• Beach (2012): Foreign policy actions can be undertaken using a variety of different instruments, ranging from adopting declarations, making speeches, negotiating treaties, giving other states economic aid, engaging in diplomatic activity such as summits, and the use of military force
• No matter which instruments are used, the primary objective of states in outlining their foreign policies is to maximise their national security.
• States can go about maximising national security through different means such as by military force, economic prosperity and/or the general welfare of its people.
• Difficult to analyse to what extent national security is a primary objective of states – theories of IR will help explain states’ motives and how they go about maximising state security, if it is their prime objective at all.
• This essay will analyse the concept of national security through realism (focused on military power), liberalism (focused on cooperation through liberal internationalism) and constructivism (focused on wider definitions of security, such as health and the environment).
A. Realism
1. Core principles of realist view of national security
• For realists, the concept of national security is an effective balancing of external threats.
• The realist tradition of IR theory is said to have stemmed from the work of Thomas Hobbes, where he
The era of globalization has witnessed the growing influence of a number of unconventional international actors, from non-governmental organizations, to multi-national corporations, to global political movements. Traditional, state-centric definitions of foreign policy as "the policy of a sovereign state in its interaction with other sovereign states is no longer sufficient. Several alternative definitions are more helpful at highlighting aspects of foreign policy
An effective foreign policy could be described as making alliances, gaining land with beneficial resources and
The purpose of foreign policies is to help protect a country's national interests, economic prosperity, national security, and ideological goals. These goals can be achieved through peaceful cooperations between other nations, or through war, aggression, and exploitation. However, even with the division in power and struggle over foreign policy, I believe the president is the most dominant force in foreign policymaking, not the Congress. The president is the dominant force because the president has the power to personally deal with foreign countries while Congress asserts itself into foreign policy by being able to check on the president’s foreign policymaking decisions and decide whether it is acceptable or not; and I believe Congress should have this important role to check on the president’s foreign policy because of the potential reckless decisions the executive branch can make.
We as a country have preformed many interventions as part of our foreign policy. The majority of the time the President of the United States has the primary responsibility to shape foreign policy, alongside with the United States Congress. The Senate must approve all treaties. The State Department is directed to define and carry out that mission. (Per United States Constitution). The goals of our foreign policies are created and enforced by our State Department. There job is to define and direct our foreign policies. Foreign Policies include the following: Preserving the national security of the United States, Promoting world peace and secure global environment, Maintaining a balance of power among the nations, Working with allies to solve international problems, Promoting democratic values and human rights, Furthering the cooperation of foreign trade and global involvement in international trade
Domestic policy differs from foreign policy, which deals with a nation’s relationship with other nations, domestic policy tends to be more visible and often more controversial. The relationship between domestic and the other nations is also commonly linked by the influence of border security, improved infrastructure, surging economy, domestic culture, political, religion, social attitudes, and many other variables. American focus on national security strategies to protect the United States, promoting economic prosperity, creating peace through strength, and gaining American influences in the world. Our relationship with other nations can vary depending on each belief or values. A basic aspect in the relation between domestic and other nations is the importance of national identity and consistent needs to protect such values. Domestic and foreign policy can be distinguished as two separate concepts in international relations, because some nations do not have a similar set of objectives. Domestic sources play their role in the forms of compromises between social structure and elements of the government. The influence of the domestic policy forms the basis of foreign strategy. The relationship between domestic and other nations are separable in the sense that global politics play a major role in the modern global society and the conduct of states in
As Kelly Anderson’s Foreign Policy Analyst, the following memo will address three areas of the United States’ foreign policy. The U.S. has gone through may transition when it comes to its foreign policy. The United States has been an isolationist, neutralist, and internationalist country from the year it was founded to now. The executive branch and the president apply their power to influence and change the nation’s foreign policy. There are specific departments within the Executive Office of the President (EOP) created to assist the president in his or her process. Political context and historical events have occurred to prove why intervening with another country’s issues does not benefit the national interest and why isolationism is a better system for this country. Hopefully, the memo will accomplish informing what the foreign policy is, was, and should be.
The phrase foreign policy refers to the programs and policies that resolute America's relations with other nations and foreign entities. Although U.S. foreign policy has a numeral of purposes, three main goals stand out. These are security, prosperity, and the creation of a better world.
In the international arena, there is no hierarchical rule to keep states in line or behaved; meaning that the international system is constantly in anarchy, aka the state of nature. This lack of rule enforcement puts states in a constant state of war, in a constant state where they need to stay on guard and in a tactical advantage otherwise the safety and well being of their state will be in jeopardy. In this scenario, the state’s number one priority is to protect itself and act in its self interest when need be, despite if it would typically be deemed immoral. (Donnelly 20)
In a realist world, states have “supreme power” over its territory and population, there is an absence of a higher authority. The fact that there is no higher authority has its consequences. States become self-interested, they compete for power and security. It can lead states to continuously struggle for power “where the strong dominate the weak (Kegley, 28).” This ultimately creates a system in which each state is responsible for its own survival, making them cautious towards their neighboring states. In addition, a realist world is a self-help system; “political leaders seek to enhance national security” by building armies and forming alliances (Kegley, 28). Economic and military power are key components to a state sovereignty and to national security.
Chapter 16 focuses on American foreign policy and what it entails. Foreign policy of the United States determines how we interact with other nations and also the standards or guidelines for these interactions. Foreign policy is designed to protect America and ensure our safety both domestically and globally. There has been an ongoing struggle involving American foreign policy in the Middle East and specifically the war on terrorism. Conflict in the Middle East has been at the top of the American Foreign policy agenda for the past 50 years.
As with all policy making, many people and organizations have a hand in setting United States foreign policy. The main goals of foreign policy is to use diplomacy — or talking, meeting, and creating agreements — to solve international issues. They try to keep problems from developing into conflicts that require military settlements.
The foreign, military and economic policies of states, the intersections of these policies in areas of change or dispute, and the general structure of relations which they create, are all analysed in terms of aspirations to achieve national and/or international security. Security is most commonly associated with the alleviation of threats to cherished values (Williams; 2008). However this is a definition that is undesirably vague and a reflection of the inherent nature of security as an ‘essentially contested concept’ (Gallie; 1962). Security in the modern day context has many key concepts associated with it: uncertainty, war, terrorism, genocide and mass killing, ethnic conflict, coercion,
The security dilemma is a fundamental concept in IR originate in John Herz’s writing provided the definition of security dilemma back in 1951 “a structural notion in which the self-help attempts of states to look after their security needs tend, regardless of intention, to lead to rising insecurity to others as each interprets its own measures as defensive and measures of others as potentially threatening” (Herz, 1950: 157) which is a classic definition heavily associates with realism. In international system, where there are no world governments or police to provide security for states as a result state exist in an anarchy and the only way to ensure their own security is through self-help. In short, security dilemmas caused by anarchy, however, in this essay,
The traditional security paradigm is focused on physical and external security threats to states. It promotes that security should be state centred and national security is primary over other securities, such as human security. States must defend their territory and authority from external, foreign threats, by physical means, such as increasing the military or
Realists’ belief that, “war is unavoidable and natural part of world affairs.” According to Bova, there are over 200 sovereign states, and they all interest to gain power to defend themselves. As a result, state’s feeling of insecurity causes it to take any means to feel secure whether it is through the formation of ally with another powerful state or accumulation of military and economic power. Such action threatens other states provoke them take similar actions. This cycle applies to all states, and the feeling of threat and desire to survive is innate in humans In understanding International Relations, McNamara’s lesson is useful in the regards that actions that state takes to protect itself causes the complexity and conflicts of foreign policies that human beings are incapable of