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POLS 425 U.S. Foreign Policy

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... new players to shape foreign policy. Globalization blurs the boundaries ... Globalization on American Foreign Policy ... study of foreign policy becomes more ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: POLS 425 U.S. Foreign Policy


1
POLS 425 U.S. Foreign Policy
  • Topic Nested Games And Alternative Theories
  • February 28, 2007

2
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • The notion of security games is a useful segue to
    chapter 5, which discusses the significance of
    globalization on foreign policy
  • Rather than focus on details of chapter, lets
    begin with a basic question

What is globalization?
3
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • Key Point Globalization is understood or
    perceived very differently by different groups,
    societies and countries
  • How globalization is perceived can have (is
    having?) a major impact on the foreign policies
    of different states
  • Consider Iran The aspirations for an open
    society at home and integration into the
    international community stem from a combined
    sense of national pride and a growing
    consciousness of the need to be part of the
    democratic movement sweeping across the world
    This has led to a new, more open foreign policy
    under Khatami (Iranian president, 1997-2005)

4
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
No basic change. Globalization does notand
cannot change the structure of theinternational
system. States remain sovereign,and the system
remains anarchic.
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • How might the various theories deal with
    globalization?
  • Realism
  • Marxism
  • Liberalism
  • Constructivism

Globalization deepens and intensifies
alreadyexisting conditions. It may lead
toviolent conflicts among major
capitalistpowers in the future.
Globalization is having a profound impact onthe
world. It undermines sovereignty, andallows new
players to shape foreign policy. Globalization
blurs the boundaries betweenthe domestic and
international.
It depends on how globalization is understoodand
perceived. Globalization may create basisfor
more peaceful, cooperative world, or it mayvery
well lead to a clash of civilizations
5
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • Implications of Globalization on American Foreign
    Policy
  • From a liberal perspective, globalization has a
    number of implications for US foreign policy, the
    most important of which stem from the relative
    decline of sovereignty

What is sovereignty and why is it important?
Globalization undermines sovereignty,
whichundermines the power of states
globalizationopens the door to the empowerment
of non-state actors to a degree never before seen
6
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • Importance of (Declining) Sovereignty
  • If liberals are right, the decline of
    sovereignty will open the door to more and more
    domestically-based, international and
    transnational actors exercising more and more
    influence over foreign policy. These actors
    include
  • The usual suspects corporations, domestic
    interest groups, political parties, lobbyists,
    and other domestic non-state actors
  • The not-so-usual suspects non-governmental
    organizations (NGOs), international governmental
    organizations (e.g., UN, WTO), social movements
    (e.g., anti-globalization movement),
    transnational organizations and coalitions,
    epistemic communities, individuals, and so on

7
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • Importance of (Declining) Sovereignty
  • As more non-state actors become involved in the
    foreign policy making process, the line between
    domestic and international becomes more and more
    blurred foreign policy becomes more and more
    nested (that is, more multi-level). This means
  • The study of foreign policy becomes more
    complicated
  • Traditional conceptions of foreign policy (i.e.,
    realist and Marxist) must be rethought and
    seriously revised, and perhaps even abandoned
  • If you doubt this, a liberal might say, just
    consider the role of a single non-state actor, al
    Qaeda

8
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • Importance of (Declining) Sovereignty
  • Al Qaeda is the quintessential model of
    globalization the groups power derives from
    globalizing processes
  • - no fixed base of operations
  • - appeal to transnational, decidedly non-state
    identity based on Islam
  • - uses tools of financial globalization to
    finance operations and evade state power
  • - uses tools of technology and global
    communications to accumulate and mobilize
    resources and manpower

9
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • Constructivism, Globalization and U.S. Foreign
    Policy
  • Basic Point Constructivism tells us that our
    construction of globalization is key
  • Consider the example of another quintessential
    model of globalization Global Warming
  • How has the Bush Administration (and its
    supporters) constructed global warming--as a
    grave and serious threat to the United States
    and the international community, or as something
    else

Much of the debate over global warming is
predicated on fear, rather than science." The
threat of catastrophic global warming is the
"greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American
people U.S. Sen. James M. InhofeChairman of
the Senate Committee on the Environment
10
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • Constructivism, Globalization and U.S. Foreign
    Policy
  • A light-hearted interludeon global
    warmingWill Ferrel as George W.Bush discussing
    global warming

11
U.S. Foreign PolicyNested Games and Alternative
Theories
  • A Nested Game with Many Players
  • Constructivism, Globalization and U.S. Foreign
    Policy
  • Key Point. The construction of global warming as
    a grave threat, as a the greatest hoax ever
    perpetrated on the American people, or as
    something else as profound policy implications
  • As grave threat (say, more grave than the threat
    Iraq posed to the US in 2002) Demands an
    immediate, large-scale, coordinated, long-term,
    and expensive response
  • As a hoax Demands no pro-active policy response
    at all instead, requires that perpetrators of
    the hoax be ostracized, marginalized and even
    punished
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