INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND US FOREIGN POLICY Boston University Summer Challenge Program Session 3 (2015) Instructor: Claire Leavitt

 Introductions  Syllabus  Group assignments INTRODUCTORY STUFF  Introductions  Syllabus  Group assignments

WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL POLITICS?  Politics describes how people/entities/institutions/interest groups solve problems  E.g., how does a group of people get what it wants?  How does a group of people solve conflicts with other groups who oppose its goals?

WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL POLITICS?  International politics, then, describes how countries get what they want, how countries solve problems and how countries avoid conflict, often by working together

WHAT ARE NATION-STATES?  What are countries, i.e., nation-states?  Territories—usually delineated according to ethnic and religious heritage—over which the government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force

WHAT ARE NATION-STATES?  Within each territory, i.e., within each country, there is a set of rules (laws) that guide people’s behavior. If a person or a group breaks the rules, the government is the only entity that can legitimately punish the lawbreaker  People living within that country will recognize that the punishment is just

“THE” QUESTION OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS  Nation-states naturally conflict with one another because each nation-state is governed by a different set of rules  Thus, the foundational question of international politics is: Why do countries fight with one another? Why do countries go to war? And how can we prevent war?

WHAT IS FOREIGN POLICY?  Generally, foreign policy is the broad set of rules, principles and decisions that countries use to deal with other countries and to solve conflicts with other countries  E.g., the “Bush doctrine,” containment, “responsibility to protect”; “pivot to China”  Foreign policy may also refer to one specific decision a country makes to address one specific problem or prevent war with one specific nation

US FOREIGN POLICY  What is the foreign policy of the United States?  Can the foreign policy of a nation as big and diverse as the US be encapsulated into just one sentence/description (i.e., a doctrine)?  Foreign policy also involves a country’s image and identity: How does the rest of the world view US foreign policy?

US FOREIGN POLICY  Every country varies, but in the US, most foreign policy decisions are made by the president and the executive branch of the US government. Thus, foreign policy of a nation may change depending on the vision of that nation’s leader  What is the foreign policy of the United States under President Barack Obama? What was it under President George W. Bush? What might it be under a new president?

OBAMA’S VISION  How does President Obama view the world?  President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”  Did Obama deserve this prize?  Why did the Nobel Committee award it to him?

OBAMA’S VISION  Peace Prize acceptance speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AORo-YEXxNQ  How does President Obama characterize and describe US foreign policy?  How does President Obama feel about war? Does he believe the world will someday eradicate war?

THE 21st CENTURY WORLD  What do you think are the biggest problems facing the world today? How do you think the US should respond? Should the US respond?

WHY DO WARS OCCUR?  “Why do countries go to war with one another?” is the foundational question of international politics  Concomitantly: How can countries make themselves better off while avoiding war?  Every facet of international politics—international law, diplomacy, bilateral negotiations, trade agreements—is dedicated to answering these questions

 Three “images” or levels of analysis for explaining why wars occur: WHY DO WARS OCCUR?  Three “images” or levels of analysis for explaining why wars occur: 1) Man (leaders who make decisions) 2) The state (how is a nation internally organized?) 3) The international environment (what kind of arena do nations operate within?)

FIRST IMAGE  The flaws of individual leaders are responsible for wars—e.g., Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin  Humans are fallible creatures who are motivated by power; they cannot be trusted to always do the right thing  Obama’s view of the cause of war (?)

SECOND IMAGE  Wars are caused not by flawed individuals but by imperfect states  How have nation-states decided to structure themselves? Internal organization determines whether countries wage war  Democratic peace theory; Lenin’s theory of global capitalist exploitation  Are non-democratic states, or capitalist states, more likely to wage war?

THIRD IMAGE  Wars are caused by the features of the international environment in which they operate  The international environment is anarchic—there is no enforcer of international law (countries can convince others to follow international law, but there is no way to enforce that law)  Thus, countries wage war because they can  Role of the United Nations?