Chapter 3: Grand Strategy 1: Introduction and Isolationism
Overview
- Grand Strategy provides a tool kit by which to evaluate foreign policies being implemented by the American Government
3.1 What is Grand Strategy?
- Grand Strategy is the set of overarching ideas that guide the conduct of foreign policy, it identifies the set of interests the US should pursue, and the appropriate policy means
- Inside Grand Strategy is a series of subsidizing ideas, theories, or assumptions about a nature of international order
- Here are the Big Ideas of Grand Strategy:
- Core Principals of International Political Order
- Main Threats
- Content of National Interests
- Arguments about the best policy means to achieve those goals
- Grand Strategy is at the top of the pyramid of American Policies that shape how the US interacts with governments around the world
- Plays a coordinating role among these different dimensions of policy
- Grand Strategy is parallel as the international version of partisanship
- There are very different standpoints for grand strategy, disputed Republicans want more military action in promoting democracy, known as "primacy"
- Others believe that more military creates more problems, and that the US would be safer if it withdraws from some of its commitments
- Partisanship is not a good predictor of Grand Strategy
- Different Republican politicians may support different Grand Strategy positions
3.2: Components of Grand Strategy
- Grand Strategies are best understood in relation to one another rather than absolute positions
- Grand Strategies will vary in several different dimensions
- Interests
- Geographic Scope: regional or global
- Content of overarching interests
- Principal Threats facing the Untied States
- Geographic Threats
- Identity and Interests of Adversaries
- Interests and threats are often linked
- Optimal Politician Instruments
- Unilateralism vs. Multilateralism
- Unilaterialism is only to follow US rules and policies not seeking cooperation with other nations
- Multilateralism is when governments of different nations work together
- Effectiveness of military force
- Unilateralism vs. Multilateralism
- Interests
- 7 Types of Post Cold War Grand Strategy
- Isolationism
- Offshore Balancing
- Selective Engagement
- Restraint
- Liberal Institutionalism
- Primacy
- Liberal Hegemony
3.3 Discussion of Obama's West Point Speech
- Elements of Grand Strategy within the Speech:
- National Interests
- Terrorism is the greatest threat facing the United States
- Discussion of means
- US cannot rely completely on military power, cannot always rely on military force as it will generate a backlash and create more enemies. Alternative Mechanism: International institutions
- Identification of Treats
- Terrorism is nested in the policy recommendations of Obama's administraion
- There were a couple of mentions of China and Russia as growing powers
- Critique of isolationism, as there are things around the world that will impact us no matter what
- National Interests
3.4 What is Isolationism?
- Reduce US role in international politics and safeguard its security and national interests by keeping the outside world out at a distance
- Most Constrained and narrow of all grand strategies, smallest role for the US
- Goal is to reduce Foreign Interactions
- Logic:
- American threads abroad are minimal
- Foreign Conflicts can inflict domestic politics
- Foreign Intervention itself can create a threat
- America 1st
- Critique:
- Isolationism allows problems to fester
- Logic:
3.5: Examples of Isolationism
- George Washington's Farewell address
- Annoyed with French meddling in US affairs, they saught to put Republicans in power, US should then avoid foreign entanglement
- Republican Administration in the 1920s
- Much less isolationism after the Cold War
- Donald Trump Presidency seems to garner support for growing reassurance of isolationism known as "neo-isolationism" and to pressure allies to spend more resources to support their own safeguarding
3.6: Discussing Posen Reading
- Posen argues that US has undergone bipartisan form of Grand Strategy that fuses liberal institutionalism and primacy (Known as Liberal Hegemony)
- Bush, Obama, and Clinton all saught Hegemonic positions
- Posen argues that this has resulted in bad outcomes and even worse future consequences
- Argues for a more restrained policy that emphasizes isolationism and selective engagement
- Argues that can activist foreign policy since the end of the cold war has created 3 basic problems
- Anti-American Balancing, in which rival states come together to contribute/challenge what they perceive as excessive American Power
- Production of Unending/Unwinnable conflicts involving nationalism and identity
- Anticipating some of the larger themes of Donald Trump, too tolerant of shirking by its allies an overly activist policy making other countries rely on US for security and getting a free ride of US policy
- Posen argues that we should rebalance our foreign policy away from these commitments, and re-calibrate to a more restrained foreign policy
- What would this look like [4 things]?
- US should focus on preventing rise of powerful rivals, fighting terrorism, and preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons
- If done, US should then reduce its alliance commitments
- US should avoid counter insurgency campaigns, needs to be more selective in its approach to fight terrorism, efforts to reform society to not support terrorism is not the right approach
- Use airstrikes, drones, and airstrikes
- US should reduce size of military, resource demands would lock in this type of foreign policy
- What would this look like [4 things]?