Lecture 1 The Constitution and US Foreign Policy

Question 1

What are the main foreign policy powers

allocated by the Constitution?

Answer 1

✓ Regulate Commerce (art.1)
✓ Declare War (art.1)
✓ Ratify Treaties (art. 2)
✓ Appoint Diplomatic Representatives (art.2)

Question 2

Powers of Congress

Answer 2

✓ Foreign Trade
✓ Declare War
✓ Indirect Responsibilities (allocations, immigration, norms on naturalization, power of the purse, etc.)
✓ What is not explicitly stated
✓ Role of the Senate (treaties and appointments)

Question 3

Reid v. Covert

Answer 3

(1957): Supreme Court ruled that the
Constitution supersedes international treaties
ratified by the US Senate (“this Court has regularly
and uniformly recognized the supremacy of the
Constitution over a treaty“)

Question 4

Destroyers for Bases Agreement

Answer 4

September 2, 1940, fifty mothballed Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson-class US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions.

Question 5

Powers of the President

Answer 5

✓ Negotiate Treaties + Treaty Interpretation/Termination
✓ Appoint Ambassadors and Diplomatic Representatives
✓ Commander in Chief (art.2): “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United
States, and of the Militia of the several States, when
called into the actual Service of the United States”
✓ Apply Laws (“he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully
executed”)