Homework #13

Foreign Policy
1. What was the significance of the Peace of Westphalia?
The Peace of Westphalia limited the Church’s power over the state greatly because it gave
territorial rulers more dictation over religions in their boundaries, “thus rendering national
secular authority superior to religious edict from Rome” (Hague 24)
2. What were the four waves of decolonization?
The four waves of decolonization describe how “non-settler colonies emerge[d] into statehood.
They took place over a period of two centuries. Each wave left certain kinds of states on each
post-colonial shore (Hague 29).
1st - Occurred in Spanish and Portuguese territories in Latin America. They were “republican
movements against a monarchial rule”. New constitutions were created but they were not
democratic nor fully implemented (Hudson 29).
2nd –Happened in Europe & the Middle East when Austro-Hungarian empire was split, and when
the several North-eastern European countries gained temporary independence from Russia
(Hudson 30).
3rd – Took place after 1945 when “European states diminished by war” retreated from empire.90
new independent countries emerged between 1944 and 1984. The “state form” could not be
successful in these countries because of colonial imposed ethnic, regional, and religious divisions
that separated the countries(Hudson 30).
4th - Occurred in last ten years of 1990s when the “communist bloc” dissolved giving
independence to Baltic states and to soviet satellites, and the U.S.S. R. broke up into 15
“successor states”. The Baltic states gained political and economic stability, and the “central
Asian republics” suffer from post-colonial syndrome: small size, ethnic divisions, a pre-
industrial economy, and autocratic rule (Hudson 31).
3. What is the difference between an IGO and an NGO? Provide examples.
An IGO is an intergovernmental organization that provides a way for international communities
to respond to the world’s problems without a world government. Their members include states
that constitute single purpose entities, such as the International Telecommunications Union,
regional organization, such as the E.U., and universal organizations, such as the U.N. On the
other hand, an NGO is a International non-governmental organization, meaning it is “a private
institution with members or groups drawn from more than one country, such as Greenpeace, the
International Red Cross, and the Catholic Church”. NGOs are often used to enact IGO policy.
“NGOs are more efficient and less corrupt than many domestic governments and they are also
more sensitive than armies to local political conditions” (Hudson 41). IGOs affect domestic
policy making while NGOs affect a state’s economy and can affect their government if they
substitute for one when acting as a UN subcontractor
4. How is globalization weakening the sovereignty of states? Discuss, regarding both developed
and less developed countries.
Globalization is weakening the sovereignty of developed states because IGOs complicate the
task of governance, especially for smaller states because they have to deal with all the meetings
that come with being in an IGO; for bigger states IGOs tend to “fragment domestic policy-
making. Furthermore, “National judges are increasingly willing to use international agreements
to strike down the policies of their home government”, meaning that judges are making it harder
for their home governments because they have influence over them that they obtain from the
IGO. Globalization weakens less developed states because NGOs often come to their aid, or may
substitute for their government, or may strengthen that country’s economy with jobs and
“demand”, causing that country’s economy to fall deeply when the NGO leaves which may
devastate the country and require the NGO to come back, which weakens that developing
country’s sovereignty greatly.
5. Hudson argues that excessive secrecy associated with the “national security state”
undermines democracy.
(a) Explain why.
Excessive secrecy undermines democracy because “citizens cannot participate effectively in
influencing policy” if they do not know or have access to the information, leaving those policies
or debates biased. Also, Citizens need to know if their public officials have been successful or
unsuccessful in order to evaluate them and re-elect them, or to participate and hold their
government accountable.
(b) Provide at least 5 examples of what Hudson considers to be excessive secrecy.
I. “Pursuing a controversial course of action in secret, so as to avoid public policy
discussion” like when Reagan sold weapons to Iran contrary to his public stance in order
to fund contras after the Boland amendment was passed by congress (Hudson 309).
II. The size of the CIA’s current budget is kept secret and it has denied requests from
historians to declassify its budgets from the 50s and 60s even though they are in no way
related to the CIAs current activities (Hudson 307)
III. Bush issued an executive order to federal agencies restricting info that would be made
available to congress (Hudson 307).
IV. Bush nullified the Presidential records act by not releasing records from the Reagan and
Bush administrations. (307)
V. Throughout the Vietnam war, various officials in the CIA, the military, and the defense
department had lied and released distorted info about the war’s progress that maintained
support that contributed to the prologation of a disastrous policy. (310)
6. Hudson argues that excessive centralization of power associated with the “national security
state” undermines democracy.
(a) Explain why.
The centralization of power hinders the public’s ability to influence public policies and gives the
president more power than is said in the constitution. The president also becomes dictator-like,
since he may come to believe that he needs not confer with congress when making decisions
concerning war.
(b) Provide at least 5 examples of what Hudson considers to be excessive centralization of
power.
I. “Kennedy and Johnson gradually involved American forces in a major war in Vietnam
without congressional participation. Throughout the war, Presidents Kennedy, Johnson,
and then Nixon made all the crucial decisions about its management, expressing mainly
contempt for attempts by Congress or the public to influence those decisions.”
II. Johnson and Nixon , called anti-war movements subversive, meaning they were ignoring
the people their nation is supposed to be run by.
III. Bush would have sent our troops to war in Kuwait “had Congress not passed resolutions”
because “it was the right thing to do” according to his own judgment. (315)
IV. Bush advisers developed elaborate legal arguments to justify virtually unlimited
presidential war power” (316)
V. In order to invade Iraq, Bush only needed to create a campaign, that we now know was
greatly based on broad faulty , and perhaps manipulated intelligence and assertions, to
gain support for the war from the public.
7. Hudson argues that repression of political dissent associated with the “national security
state” undermines democracy.
(a) Explain why.
The repression of political dissent associated with national security undermines democracy
because it often violates basic civil liberties and gives the government the power to spy on
people, to break into their homes without a warrant, to imprison people without a trial, and to
outcast people who go against the norm. These all undermine democracy because repression
takes away our first amendment right, and allows violation of most of our other rights.
(b) Provide at least 5 examples of what Hudson considers to be excessive repression of political
dissent.
I. When government officials spy on citizens, read their mail, intimidate them, discredit
them, force them from their jobs, or imprison them in the name of protecting society from
the political dissent of communists, subversives, and terrorists.320
II. The 1950 internal surveillance act which forced people who were part of communist
groups to register with the attorney general or else face imprisionment.321
III. Keeping liberal or left wing groups under illegal surveillance that included warrantless
mail opening, break-ins, and wiretaps which all went toward creating secret records.322
IV. USA Patriot act expanded def of terrorist, DOJ can detain people without charging for a
crime, expanded FBIs surveillance powers. 324
V. Bush’s domestic electronic surveillance without obtaining court orders as the law
requires.324
8. Hudson argues that the “Military industrial complex” distorts government policy in ways that
go against the public interest.
(a) Explain why.
The Military industrial complex distorts government policy in ways that go against the public
interest because Military-industrial lobbyists support those politicians who will enact policies
that are in favor of the industry with lots of money. This in turn, influences politicians to make
decision based on their lobbyists despite the fact that the decision may not be in the public
interest; it’s all about the money. Also, since the military-industrial complex has created a
surplus of weapons, those weapons are being sold to foreign countries despite the fact that they
were primarily intended to protect America, so America is basically putting itself and its citizens
in danger by selling weapons that are just as good as their own to foreign countries. America is
also setting the world up for a third world war.
(b) Provide at least 5 examples.
1. Defense industries lobby the government and in doing so they waste a lot of the
government’s money, for instance, when C 130 planes were purchased by congress for
the air force even though the air force only wanted 5.
2. The military industries in America have created a surplus of planes and weapons that they
sell to foreign countries, and they Us claims they are scared of attacks, I wonder why.
3. The weapons industry puts the public interest after the financial needs of the defense
industry.
4. Since America spends so much on defense, they are not spending as much as they can on
education, mass transit, infrastructure renewal, cleaner environment, or the maintanecne
of national park systems, which also undermines Americans future economic security.
5. The cost of funding U.S. military weapons purchases cuts into the costs of military pay
increases and readiness training, resulting in more casualties overseas.
9. (a) Why does Hudson argue in favor of the draft as an institution that is important to
democracy?
Provide at least three examples.
 1. Draftees are less likely to obey orders that are unconstitutional or undemocratic because
they cannot identify as well with their officers as professional soldiers can.
2. There is a growing gap between civilians and the military, and this is due to the volunteer
army America has because the volunteers feel they are sacrificing themselves for their
nation which makes them feel morally superior to average Americans.
3. Hudson believes that the reason politicians have a more militarized foreign policy
because they have never been to war before, therefore, they do not know the physical, or
psychological effects of war like those politicians, such as Eisenhower, who did know,
and who did not want the atom bomb dropped.
(b) Do you agree or disagree?
I agree with his point, but I disagree with the draft, because we shouldn’t be in a war right now.
But I think he does have a good idea because I know what he means when he says politicians
with military experience. They are the ones who usually make the best decisions for both the
people, and the industry.
10. (a) What is the relationship between a country’s level of income inequality and its degree of
trade protectionism?
The higher the degree of trade protectionism, the bigger the income inequality gap. 108
LDCs with increased trade have decreased income inequality, while DCs have increased income
inequality. 109
(b) What explanation does miller offer for this phenomenon?
Since LDCs already export goods manufactured by low skilled workers, they have decreased
income inequality; however, for DCs, since they use skilled workers to make exports, and they
don’t need so many, they have an increased income inequality. 109
11. (a) What is the relationship between a country’s level of income inequality and its level of
military spending?
The Military Budget would be higher when a country has more income inequality because
someone who has a higher level of income would probably benefit more. 126
(b) What is the relationship between the strength and unity of organized labor in a country and
that country’s level of military spending?
The strength and unity of organized labor is usually stronger if the military budget is smaller.
This is because the defense industry usually does not dominate the union scene, meaning that
people in other unions would be stronger resulting in their ability to lobby the government to
lower its military budget.
(c) Are these results consistent with the expectations of realist theory? Explain.
No, the realist theory claims that the size of a country will determine its military budget and that
countries determine their budgets based on the probability of attack from surrounding
countries.udson D