Theories of US foreign policy

Introduction

            The purpose of this article is to focus on the role of theories or theoretical perspectives in creating US foreign policy.  It is not easy to understand the American foreign policy simply because there are many factors that influence the making of foreign policy.  To address this complexity, the International Relations scholars have introduced a number of competing theories which focus on both international and domestic factors that influence the American foreign policy. The purpose of using a theoretical framework is that in making policy, the policymakers focus on both internal and external world and gains knowledge and skills as well as the necessary information needed.  In order to explain the American foreign policy, the theory of international politics does not work alone but rather, what is needed is a theory of foreign policy which focus on understanding why other nations created specific foreign policy. In general, to explain the American foreign policy, the analysts should combine systematic sources and domestic sources to provide a comprehensive picture of how the U.S should make foreign policies.

            U.S foreign policy stands for the actions or standards which U.S takes to conduct relations with world's nations, to achieve national objectives and more importantly to maintain the national security as well as world peace. In making a foreign policy, U.S  focus on sustaining  the values and interests  through  evaluating factors from external environment,  societal environment, the  governmental setting, the bureaucratic roles and  the individual personalities (Schmidt, N.D). These factors that influence the foreign policy-making are independent variables and they play a significant role in explaining the foreign policy. These domestic factors are important in that they focus on core values, non-governmental aspects, and the domestic political system and, they play role in the formulation and implementation. Mostly, the domestic factors identifies and analyses the things to consider in creating the foreign policy or in promoting democracy, freedom and human rights (Wittkop et al. 2008).The major claim is that these factors can be referred as ‘pre-theory' that explain the mechanism by which the U.S foreign should be made.  Scholars are interested to know more on the theory of foreign policy which explains "what states try to achieve in the external realm and when they try to achieve it"(Schmidt, N.D). The point is that even though the domestic sources  focus on the domestic political system and what to focus on,  it is important to explore the external world and  understand the structure of the international system.

The major factor that will help explain the American foreign policy is the external force- this goes beyond the understanding of core values and ideology to appoint where to explores the international system and the world politics. External theories claims that U.S foreign policy should be made by focusing on external pressures in the international system.  For instance, the defensive realism and offensive realism supports the claim by stating that the factors in the international system help understand that the ‘international system is made of sovereignty states and, each state believes that it has the highest authority and should use the authority for security and survival’ (Schmidt, N.D).The importance of focusing on external factors such as the states' amount power and U.S amount of power will help the America create a foreign policy. Note that in the international realm, states acts as security maximizers through expansionism which leads to a counterbalancing coalition. Thus, by understanding the amount of power in the other states, America will become a ‘defensive positional' where it will maintain a moderate power for security (Schmidt, N.D).  On the other hand, offensive realism argue that it is important for America to understand the states' distribution of power not to maximize security but to maximize power. This means that due to the anarchical and uncertainty that exist in the internal system, U.S should find an opportunity to maintain a higher authority for nation's survival. Every state focus on achieving the global hegemony and since it is not possible, states tends to create a regional hegemony in other nations. Thus, in addition to understanding the distribution of power to maintain the security, U.S should also prevent the emergence of regional hegemony through the use offshore balancing (Cameron Frasser, 2006).

 

 Given that defensive realism and offensive realism would help the U.S explain the foreign policy through understanding states' distribution of power, liberalism and Marxism also supports the claim by asserting that America should focus on the internal factors to understand the behaviors and get the direction of the American foreign policy (Schmidt, N.D).. According to the liberal theory, U.S should first focus on domestic institutions in terms of social, economic and political institutions and, values and identities. Since U.S is interested in promoting freedom and human rights to everyone, some non-liberal regimes may create a hostile environment. Thus, American should understand its domestic condition and best strategies to extend the democratization either through free-market economies, foreign aid, and diplomatic negotiation among other strategies (Cox, Ikenberry & Inoguchi, 2000).  Another theory that would explain the American foreign policy is the Marxism. The U.S led to ‘The Tragedy of American Diplomacy' through its expansionism goals, access, and control.  The policy of expansionism and imperialism which rooted from the U.S capitalism nature led to economic burden in both the U.S and other nations.  Since the goal of foreign policy is to promote freedom, peace, human right, democracy and maintaining a balance of power in other nation, U.S should focus on its economic factors as well its capitalism nature and offer economic benefits to the international system (Schmidt, N.D).

 Another important point is that the combination of external sources (defensive realism and offensive realism) and domestic sources (liberalism and Marxism) will effectively explain the American foreign policy (Schmidt, N.D). In other words, the Neoclassical Realism states that the external factors will help understand the structure of the international system and the world politics but the U.S will not explain the foreign policy without the internal factors. Domestic or internal factors give direction as well as a convincing explanation of policy formulation and implementation and more importantly helps in understanding the systematic factors.  It is important to note that both domestic and external factors work together in that first, before making a policy, America should understand the power distribution and the governmental structures in the international system (Schmidt, N.D).  In addition, constructivism theory supports the need to combine external and internal factors in that rather than focusing on materialistic assumptions only, U.S should also consider national identity (Houghton, 2007). The latter defines the role which American will play in the international realm. In other words, U.S should create a self-defined image which will distinguish the nation from other nations. Note that for America to explain its foreign policy, it should have a national interest which stems from social interaction and the purpose of the interest will be to help understand the relations between other liberal and non-liberal states and, be in a position to explain the foreign policy (Houghton, 2007)..

 

 

 

Conclusion

The article has confirmed that systematic sources cannot explain the American foreign policy nor domestic sources. However, both sources collectively play a significant role as they present a comprehensive picture to the U.S on how foreign policy should be made.  For instance, the eternal sources concentrate on the internal system and the world politics whereas the domestic sources concentrate on the societal institutions, core values, and ideologies. External sources help the U.S maximize security and power where the internal sources will provide an insight on how to achieve the foreign policy goals.  However, unlike external and external factors, constructivism argue that the U.S should not only concentrate on materialistic assumptions such as power, wealth, security, survival and more but should also focus on its national identity which defines its role in the international realm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Houghton, D. P. (2007). Reinvigorating the study of foreign policy decision making: toward a

constructivist approach. Foreign policy analysis, 3(1), 24-45.

 

Wittkopf, E. R., Kegley, C. W., & Jones, C. M. (2008). American foreign policy. Belmont, Calif: Thomson

Higher Education.

 

Cox, M., Ikenberry, G. J., & Inoguchi, T. (2000). American democracy promotion: Impulses, strategies,

and impacts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Cameron Frasser. (2006). US Foreign Policy After the Cold War: Global Hegemon Or Reluctant Sheriff?

Routledge,

 

Schmidt Brain.(N.D). Theories of US foreign policy