Welcome to your policy group. You will be expected
to post ideas, bibliographic references (which may include electronic
files as well as traditional books and articles), and relevant
electronic files to your group, so that you can exchange ideas about
US foreign policy in this issue area. You will want to learn what the
current US policy is and you will try to evaluate it. Can you think
of better alternative policies? Before we get into the specifics of your
policy area, let us discuss policy in general. Any policy presumably
has some goal or set of goals and objectives which you need to
identify. Are the goals consistent? In the real world of foreign
policy we may have conflicting objectives. A good policy will try to
reconcile conflicting goals and objectives as best one can. What are
the priorities? Usually in politics people disagree about priorities.
The various groups and organizations involved in the US foreign
policy process may have different assessments of goals and
priorities. You will need to examine them critically in your policy
area. Once the goals and objectives have been
critically discussed and clarified, the policy maker will try to
devise a strategy to meet the goals. Strategies are just means to
ends. Getting down to the practice of politics, you will also be
interested in tactics consistent with implementing the strategy. A
foreign policy, if it is well thought out, will include strategy and
tactics. A strategy may be good in theory but how
practical is it? What are the means needed to implement it? What are
the resources that the policy maker can call upon? These resources
may be military, economic, political, commercial, and sometimes moral
as well. They all boil down to power, but power takes many forms in
the international arena. A major criterion for evaluating a given
policy is whether it can be implemented, i.e. are the resources
(including political support from important groups and actors)
available to carry out the policy? Can they somehow be mobilized? Is
the political will available? The task of political leadership is not
only to devise wise policies but also to mobilize support for
them. Who are the critical actors in the
policy-making process in your policy area? Which groups and agencies
are critical to the successful implementation of the policy? How
important is congress and its committees? Pressure groups? The
general American public? Finally, last but not least, how effectively
does the policy address the problem under discussion? The relevant
actors and political realities in the Middle East also have to be
considered. Please don't be overwhelmed by all these
questions. In the coming four weeks or so you will pull it all
together in discussions with your friends even if you know nothing at
the outset about the Middle East. Most of our “real” policy makers
don't have the foggiest idea about the region. Watch out for the mass
media, too! We will try to help you grow out of their stereotypes
about the Middle East.