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MASARYK UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND EUROPEAN STUDIES
Fall 2009
Midterm Review Sheet for United States Foreign Policy
Date of Exam: Thursday, November 19th
, 2009, 8-9:30 am
PLEASE BRING TWO SHEETS OF BLANK PAPER & A PEN
Terms, Identifications & Summary Answers: To be prepared, you should be comfortable writing a
few sentences for each of the following terms. For "larger concepts," you should be comfortable
writing one to two paragraphs (for example when defining the "Unitary Executive" thesis or
Wildavsky's "Two Presidencies" thesis):
1) Exceptionalism, Unilateralism
2) Moralism, Isolationism, Pragmatism
3) Typologies of Democracies
4) "Ideological Democracy"
5) The Westphalian System
6) Element of National Power (NP)
7) American Hegemony & Manifest Destiny
8) Definition of Grand Strategy
9) Dimensions of Grand Strategy
10) "Strategic Diplomacy"
11) US as Emerging Power in 19th
Century
12) Early Cold War Period of USFP
13) Truman Doctrine
14) Containment & its Developments From
JFK to Bush I
15) Post-Cold War & Containment
16) Liberalism, Realism, & Critical
Approaches to Study of IR & USFP
17) John Mearsheimer & Neo-Realism
18) Francis Fukuyama & Pre-Emption
19) Tools of Statecraft & Policy Avenues of
Statecraft
20) Posen & Ross on 4 Grand Strategies in
US History
21) Relationship Among Geopolitics, Nat'l
Interests, & Geography
22) Importance of MacKinder on the above
23) Role & Relevance of IR Theory for USFP
24) "Soft Power" vs "Hard Power"
25) Mazaar's "Bushian Triangle"
26) George Kennan on Containment
27) Components of Containment, 1947-1987
28) Was Containment a Success or Not?
29) Key Actors of USFP ­ Include the
30) Slide on "Challenges to Nation Bldg"
31) Criticisms of "Nation Bldg"
32) Key Actors of USFP
33) Structure of DoD & IC
34) Congressional Oversight & USFP
35) NSC Structure
36) The "Unitary Executive" Thesis
37) Wildavsky's "Two Presidencies" Thesis
38) Differences between "Declared" &
"Undeclared" wars
39) Article I, Section 2, US Constitution
40) Article I, Section 8, US Constitution
41) Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
42) "Justiciability" in Wartime
43) WPR & its components, requirements
44) Presidential Prerogative Power
45) AUMF, Public Law 107-40
46) Constitutional Roles of US President
affecting USFP
47) Limits on Presidential power
48) The "Imperial Presidency" thesis
49) Constitutional issues related to the
treatment, detention, & trials for
Guantanamo Bay suspects
50) Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004)
51) Regime Change, Assassinations, & Use
52) "Bellicism"
53) "Operational Bombing Doctrine"
54) Spectrum of Political Violence &
Typologies of Violence
55) Use of Force & Tracks of Diplomacy
56) Obsolescence of War
57) War Initiators & Factors, Interventions
58) Public Opinion in Conflict, War
59) Congressional Influence in USFP
60) Framing Effects on US Opinion
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Short Essays: Several of the short essay questions below will appear on the midterm and
you will be asked to answer ONE OR TWO of them. Be sure to answer the questions in
a short essay of several paragraphs. Be sure to address each aspect of the question.
1) According to Wildavsky, what is the "Two Presidencies" thesis? Do you believe his
argument? Is it relevant to today's politics of the American presidency? Why or why
not? How has the "Two Presidencies" thesis changed?
2) According to our early lectures and readings, what are the dimensions and roots of
USFP? What principles and what paradigms are central or important to
understanding the conduct & development of USFP?
3) In thinking about Presidential decisions to use military force, should that decision be
made by a deliberative democratic body like Congress, or a unitary, decisive
individual like the president? Is deliberation always preferable to democracy? Is
democracy always preferable to deliberation? Under what circumstances should the
decision to go to war be solely in the president's hands?
4) How broad is the President's defensive war power? How does this exercise of power
(this tension over war-making) affect our knowledge of "presidential failure" in the
case of USFP?
5) Why has a shift occurred from Congressional to Presidential Preeminence in War
Powers? Describe post-WPR Presidential Behavior. How has this behavior affected
our understanding of crises, governance, & political leadership? How have changes
in Congressional-Presidential relations affected the conduct of USFP?