American Foreign Policy

This will be a 10-page paper (and it must be paginated) with doubled spacing and 12-point font. Your bibliography, which should be extensive and must include non-internet sources (i.e., books and/or academic articles), does not count towards this page limit.

All papers must follow the structure outlined below and use signposting to demonstrate this structure.

0. Introduction (1 page/2 paragraphs) – In the first paragraph tell me 1) what specific Presidential decision you are trying to explain, 2) what were the main executive branch divisions, 3) who won the disagreement, and why. In the second paragraph, tell me how your paper will be organized (it had better be organized following the structure described below :).

1. Background (no more than 2 pages) – Tell me just enough detail so that the rest of your paper makes sense. In short, what was the foreign policy problem that required some specific Presidential decision? I absolutely do not want a report on some US foreign policy event, so it might be wise to write this first section of the paper last, including only the details that a reader would need to understand the sections below.

2. Executive Branch Divisions (at least 3 pages) – In the first paragraph, briefly summarize the different policy options that were put in front of the President. Then develop each policy option in more detail, clearly identifying the foreign policy actors within the executive branch (only) that favored this policy option and explaining why they favored it. You should be able to fill out (and indeed must include within your paper at the front of this section) a table like the following example:

To develop the divisions outlined in your table, you will need to provide evidence from books and articles that such executive branch divisions existed. Use quotes and give the proper credit to the original authors. If you find that there are many various options, then you should try to simplify them into 2 or 3 main policy options. In terms of the supporting actors, you must account for all of the main foreign policy bureaucracies that we will discuss in the second part of the course (i.e., State, NSC, civilian DOD, military DOD, etc.).

Certain actors, however, do not belong in this section. First, Congress should not be included here since you are documenting executive branch divisions. Second, you should not include any foreign or non-state actors; this is a paper about divisions within the US government. Third, leave the President out of this section; here you are documenting the options that were put in front of the President. The President may enter in the next section when you explain why s/he chose one option over the others.

3. Foreign Policy Outcome (at least 3 pages) – Begin by telling me what policy option was chosen and, therefore, which bureaucratic actor/coalition effectively won the policy battle. It is possible that the resultant policy was a compromise involving several bureaucratic groups; if so, then tell me what each group won and lost. Then develop in detail at least two different political reasons explaining why this outcome was reached. No policy reasons (i.e., this was the best policy, so it was chosen) will be accepted here.

To clarify the difference between political and policy reasons, political reasons are those related to either bureaucratic politics (e.g., the number of supporting actors, the President having better relationships with some actors than others) or electoral politics (public opinion and the need for the President to follow it. Presidential pre-dispositions towards a certain policy option are also relevant here. Conversely, policy reasons are simply arguments that describe why something needed to be done (this is relevant to the background section, but not here) or why some actor felt that this policy option was good (this is relevant to section on executive branch divisions, but not here). In short, if your reason does not relate to either 1) bureaucratic politics or 2) electoral politics, then it does not belong in this section.

4. Conclusion (no more than 1 page) – Here you should simply summarize what you have argued in your paper.

Bibliography – You need to fully cite your sources. Use whatever bibliographic format you prefer, but it must provide a complete citation, and you must use a consistent format for all citations. You will also need to submit your paper to turnitin.com so that we can verify its originality.