This week’s topic is my favorite in general (because I’m an international relations scholar at heart), and my second favorite to teach (after voting and elections, which I think we can all agree was the best). Foreign Policy in the US has been guided since George Washington’s Farewell Address by two themes- isolationism & unilateralism.  Even today, when the US is the world’s preeminent military power (at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars per year), these are the two guiding themes in American Foreign Policy.  I know this sounds contradictory, which is where the framing work of the problem definition stage of policymaking really comes into play! 

Foreign Policy is also an area where the originally Constitutionally-defined separation of powers is a tough fit for the security and foreign policy challenges of today.  The expressed powers and inherent powers of the Executive Branch are strongest in foreign policy.  Presidents argue that they ought to be considered “The Sole Organ” in foreign policymaking, yet only Congress can declare war.  Which it hasn’t done since 1942, despite the US being involved in many things that look, sound, and cause death like wars.  See if you can find the differences (if there are any) between the declaration of war and the authorization to use military force on slide #363 (we’ve talked about this a little before, but it’s incredibly important, so we’ll look at it again). For those of you who need to blog this topic, you have no shortage of fascinating (heartbreaking) things to look at- drone usage, ongoing conflicts, human rights violations, trade, globalization- it turns out that almost every aspect of life (and government) can be connected to foreign policy in some way (hence, my loving IR).

The semester is FLYING by, and at the moment, no one has the points you’ll need to pass. That’s okay – there’s still time, but you need to get on doing some work RIGHT AWAY. One quick and easy option is coming to the “What Just Happened” Election event and blogging about it– it’s this Tuesday from 1:15-2:45 in V-219, and that’s 5 points! There’s also lots of other ways to learn and earn points- pick what you’d like to do from our assignments list. Remember, if you don’t have 73 points by the end of the class, you will fail the course, and nobody wants that!

Work for this week:

• Read Before our class: Chapter 17
• Watch Crash Course Video 50
• Attend in person and blog about the What Just Happened Election event on Tuesday, November 19 from 1:15-2:45 in V-219
• Actively participate in our Tuesday class 4:15-5:45pm
• Check out this week’s slides.
• Team L, write a blog post; teams E & J read and respond.
• Look at the points you have earned so far in the class, then choose an assignment so you can earn some. You can’t pass if you just take the final exam (even if you score perfectly on it, it’s only 15 points, and you need 73 for a C).