STUDY QUESTIONS
1. How has public opinion changed since the end of the Cold War? When is the publicmost likely to support the use of force? Is the public reasonable or easily manipulated in its response to events? How does the public affect U.S. foreign policy?
2. Why was there so little debate over the Iraq war in Congress and among the public? Whydid U.S. intelligence officials believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction? If Saddam didn't have WMD, why wasn't he more cooperative with weapons inspectors?
3. Why do Congress and the president struggle over control of foreign policy? When is Congress likely to defer to the president? How can Congress restrain the president's use of his constitutional authority? What are the obstacles to congressional influence?
4. According to bureaucratic politics theory, who are the major players in the foreign policymaking process? Why do the players see a different face of each foreign policy issue? Are players' stands affected solely by their estimate of national security interests?
Why not? How are differences among players resolved and with what effects on the substance of U.S. foreign policy?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of the major types of presidential advisory systems? Which is the "best" system? Which factors should affect the president's selection of an advisory system?
6. How can people preserve their beliefs in the face of inconsistent information? How does consistency-seeking affect U.S. foreign policy? When do beliefs change?
7. What was FDR's grand design for the postwar order? Was it feasible? Legitimate? Why did it fail?
8. What was the containment policy? When and why did Truman adopt the containment policy? Why did Truman and his advisers perceive Soviet actions as endangering U.S. security? What alternative policies could Truman have pursued? What actions did the U.S. take to contain communism in 1947-1948?
9. Why did the Truman administration enact the Marshall Plan? What did the Marshall Plan attempt to do? Why did the Soviet Union oppose the Marshall Plan? Did the Soviet Union misperceive U.S. objectives?