The President in Foreign Policy

Question 1

Constitutional powers

Answer 1

The president has the power to negotiate all treaties, which must also be ratified by the Senate. The president has the power to control the armed forces and is commander-in-chief of the US military. The Constitution states that Congress has the power of the purse, which is the power to fund US military action abroad and to declare war. The president appoints members of the executive who have a foreign policy role including the secretaries of state, defence and homeland security and ambassadors.

Question 2

Extra-Constitutional powers

Answer 2

The president can use speeches to set out the US’s foreign policy tone, including at the State of the Union address and the president’s inauguration. Donald Trump mentioned foreign policy in his 2017 inaugural speech, stating his aim of reducing military commitments abroad.
The president has the power to agree and sign executive agreements with foreign countries, which does not need Senate approval.

Question 3

Obama and ‘soft power’

Answer 3

President Obama wished to use ‘soft power’ by using diplomacy in foreign policy rather than war. In 2014 President Obama outlined his “might doing right” foreign policy vision in a speech to the U.S Military Academy, where he outlined his wish to use alliances and sanctions over military action. In 2011 Obama completed the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. In 2015 President Obama agreed to a deal with Iran to reduce its ability to produce nuclear weapons in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Question 4

Bush foreign policy

Answer 4

The Bush Doctrine is the term for US foreign policy strategy under President George W. Bush. American foreign policy under President Bush was based on the belief that the USA had the right to carry out pre-emptive strikes against any threat. The Bush Doctrine believed in American primacy, which is the view that the American system based on democracy and freedom should exist throughout the world.

Question 5

Examples of Bush foreign policy

Answer 5

Right to pre-emptive strikes. In 2002 President Bush justified military action in Iraq by stating that their weapons of mass destruction threatened the US and that he was “not willing to stake one American life on trusting Saddam Hussein”. Belief in American primacy. President Bush outlined that the US’s invasion of Iraq was part of his aim to pressurise countries in the Middle East to democratise including Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon.