MODULE 9.pptx
- 1. MODULE NINE: Case Studies: The Foreign Policy of Great Powers - United States, China, and Russia Global Powers and Foreign Policy • In the contemporary world, the geopolitical and geostrategic agenda are being shaped principally by ongoing US-China hegemonic competition, and also by a US-Russia strategic rivalry.
- 2. • The three rival powers are all nuclear nations, and also veto- wielding members of the UN Security Council. Among the three, the US is the dominant power in international institutions, leader of NATO, the most powerful military alliance in the world, and the leader of the “free world” of rich Western liberal democracies.
- 3. • Whereas the US and Russia are the world’s two nuclear superpowers, China and the US are the undisputed superpowers in the major dimensions of strategic power — military, economic, technological, and diplomatic. • Globally, there are other powerful power centres like the United Nations, the European Union, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom, but the centre of the global strategic universe at the moment runs directly from Washington DC to Beijing.
- 4. • Despite the fierce and, sometimes, adversarial relationships between and among the three big powers, they still cooperate to advance some very thorny issues on the global policy agenda
- 5. The United States of America • The United States is arguably the world’s only superpower, which means its foreign policy is of global scope.
- 6. • US foreign policy is concerned not only with maintaining US global hegemony but also the stability of the international system, particularly the US- led liberal, rule-based international order.
- 7. The Content of Foreign Policy • For the US, the enduring geostrategic and geopolitical objectives are the preservation of US dominance in the Western Hemisphere; preservation of the post-World War 11 international system; preventing a hostile power from establishing hegemony over critical parts of the Eurasian (European) landmass, and maintaining freedom of navigation.
- 8. The US decisively won the Cold War against Russia, but the new strategic competition is between the US and China. Between the US and China, the strategic battlefields are spread across the Indo- Pacific, South East Asia, and South and East China Seas. On the other hand, the US and Russia are locked in a supremacy battle across much of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
- 9. Strategically, the US is trying hard to prolong the “Unipolar Moment” and deter China’s seemingly inevitable rise as a great power, even as China’s is trying to establish itself as the hegemon in the Eastern Hemisphere.
- 10. The clashing interests of the two powers have triggered low- intensity military confrontations in the South China Seas, “trade wars” and significant disputes over technology transfer and intellectual property rights, raising fears of an unintended “hot war” or a new Cold War.
- 11. To curb China’s growing influence and ensure the continuing strategic superiority of the US and its Western allies, the US has increased its naval patrols in both the South and East China Seas.
- 12. The US is also trying to restrict FDI into China in sensitive technology like 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as coerce its allies to not participate in China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), an ambitious infrastructural project designed to secure China’s strategic access to Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
- 13. Additionally, the US is pursuing a cynical propaganda campaign to demonize China as a predatory power intent on using its growing economic power to “enslave” indebted poor countries.
- 14. The Foreign Policy Process • The US Constitution divides responsibility for FPM between the executive and legislative branches of government. The President and the Executive branch have responsibility for the operations formulation and execution of foreign policy, but this is subject to significant control by Congress (Parliament).
- 15. • For example, the President has power to sign treaties, but only on the “advise and consent” of the Congress. The same division of responsibility also apply in war powers regarding declaration of war and deployment of US troops.
- 16. • The foreign policy process is also characterized by intense penetration by bureaucratic politics. Because of the global scope of US foreign policy as a superpower, the FPM process is vast, involving dozens of agencies.
- 17. • Within the vast US foreign policy making machine are specialized organizations, including think tanks, promoting specific areas of policy and acting as lobbies for particular interests. The net result has produced vast diffusion of foreign policy making.
- 18. Russia The Foreign Policy Process • The leading institution of FPM in Russia is the Office of the President. The President has direct control over foreign policy and security-related ministries and departments (Foreign Affairs; Defense, intelligence, and Boarder services etc.).
- 19. • Outside the President’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has formal responsibility for coordination and implementation of foreign policy.
- 20. Content of Foreign Policy • The overriding strategic foreign policy priorities of Russia are to maintain its great power status; weaken transatlantic ties (EU and NATO); dominate the former Soviet space; and challenge/undermine the Western liberal order, political economy, and norms of democracy.
- 21. • Other priorities relate to Russia’s desire to maintain a sphere of influence among former Soviet republics now independent states in its neighborhood. Russia continues to frame these Soviet successor states as constituting a zone of Russia’s vital national security interest.
- 22. • Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, and ongoing war against Ukraine is a practical manifestation of this foreign policy doctrine. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is Russia’s formal platform for its relations with the former states of the Soviet Union who remain allies of Russia.
- 23. • Russia’s foreign policy orientation has oscillated from integration with the West, defense of Russia’s national interest, delineation of “zones of vital interest’’ and building a strong Russia. Until Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and war against Ukraine, aspects of cooperation with the West have been significant.
- 24. • Russia under President Putin has adopted a more bellicose and assertive foreign policy that reflects a strong impulse to reclaim a global role for the country, reminiscent of the superpower role enjoyed by the defunct Soviet Union.
- 25. China • China’s strategic goals, according to the country’s National Security Strategy, are to maintain world peace; preserve China’s independence and sovereignty, as well as its economic and cultural integrity – the so-called “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
- 26. The Foreign Policy Process • There are two parallel government structures in China: the Party and the State. It is the Party that holds real power. The two main state bodies that influence the direction of China’s foreign policy are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
- 27. • In practice, Party and State structures are interlocked, with leaders at the highest level being members of both.
- 28. • China’s foreign policy apparatus exhibits elements of both the unitary actor and bureaucratic models of foreign policy decision making. • The bureaucratic model is manifest in the competition between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the PLA.
- 29. • The pivotal role of the President in which the office holder directs the formulation and implementation of policy reflects the unitary model of foreign policy decision making.
- 30. Content of Foreign Policy • To manage China’s rise as an emerging great power peacefully • To reclaim ‘lost’ territories like Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as sovereignty over the South China Sea
- 31. • To manage economic integration with the Western world on its own terms • To counter US influence in Southeast Asia.