If you are interested in the role of different state-level actors in the foreign policy process, you may choose to design a different type of project. For example, you might ask this question:
What factors affect the strategies of interest groups?
Many students are interested in how interest groups affect policy making, but it is very difficult to ascertain the degree to which interest groups affect policy making. This question basically asks about the strategies of different types of interest groups to see if there is evidence that suggests a pattern in how interest groups function. Note that the dependent variable is not foreign policy making or foreign policy. The dependent variable is the strategies of interest groups. A good place to start is to read about interest groups and the process of foreign policy making. First, reread your textbook, and then go beyond that. The following resources may help.
Resources on Interest Groups
Crabb, Cecil V., Jr., Glenn J. Antizzo, and Leila E. Sarieddine. 2000.
Congress and the foreign policy process: Modes of legislative behavior.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. [See especially pp. 137–55.]
Hudson, V. M., S. M. Sims, and J. C. Thomas. 1993. The domestic politi- cal context of foreign policy-making: Explicating a theoretical construct. In The limits of state autonomy, ed. D. Skidmore and V. M. Hudson, 49–101. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Jentleson, Bruce W. 2004. American foreign policy: The dynamics of
choice in the twenty-first century. New York: W. W. Norton. [See espe-
cially pp. 44–47.]
Wittkopf, Eugene, and James McCormick. 2004. The domestic sources
of American foreign policy: Insights and evidence. Lanham, MD:
Rowman and Littlefield.
After doing this background reading, you can focus more closely on the types and strategies of interest groups. Jentleson (2004), for example, sets out a list of types of interest groups, including economic groups, identity groups (religious or ethnic), political issue groups, state and local governments, and foreign governments. He also sets out four strategies: (1) influencing Con- gress, (2) influencing the executive branch, (3) influencing public opinion, and (4) corruption (e.g., bribing, giving gifts, etc.). Based on this material, you can design your research plan in a number of different ways.
䊏 Study one major foreign policy decision and the factors that shaped interest
group strategies.
䊏 Study one type of group to see if its strategies changed over time.
䊏 Study foreign policy decisions about the same issue to see how and why
an interest group’s strategies changed over time.
Once you choose your cases, you will need to find out exactly what strate- gies the interest group or groups used. Then you will need specific informa- tion about the interest group’s activities so you can group them by strategy. For example, you might consider mailings to the public to be a strategy to in- fluence public opinion. Meetings with congressional representatives fall under the category of influencing Congress. You can obtain information about inter- est group activities in part from the interest group itself. Don’t rely on this alone, however. You’ll need more information from the press and secondary sources.
Sources for Choosing Cases and Gathering Information
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/psusp.html#lobby
The University of Michigan has a good collection of sources on lobby- ing and interest groups. This site contains links to information about groups and their sites.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/index.asp
The Center for Responsive Politics has a website that contains a data- base of lobbying groups. You can search by category or for a particular group. If you look in a section on ideological or single issues, you will find a category for foreign and defense policy.
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=Q04
The Open Secrets website includes information on interest groups in the foreign policy sector.
Terrorism
U.S. foreign policy related to terrorism has been an important topic for quite some time and certainly since 9/11/2001. Many students are interested in for- eign policy in this area. One way to approach this general topic is to compare changes
䊏 over time
䊏 under different presidents
䊏 in regard to different foreign countries.
Your general research question would be:
What factors affect U.S. foreign policy on terrorism?
If you are interested in this question, you must first read what scholars have written on the general topic.
Resources on Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy
Entman, Robert. 2004. Projections of power: Framing news, public opin-
ion, and foreign policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lynch, Timothy J., Robert S. Singh. 2008. After Bush: The case for conti-
nuity in American foreign policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Nacos, Bridgette L. 2007. Mass-mediated terrorism: The central role of the
media in terrorism and counterterrorism. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Pillar, Paul R. 2003. Terrorism and U.S. foreign policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
After reading about terrorism and foreign policy in a post-9/11 environment, you might want to assess the differences and similarities in U.S. foreign policy on terrorism between the presidencies of George Bush and Barack Obama. One way to do this would be to take Lynch and Singh’s argument that Ameri- can foreign policy under President Obama would show significant continuity with that of President Bush. First you would have to determine what specific policies you will study. Second, you must determine the degree to which this is continuity or change from one presidency to the others. Finally, you must address the factors that affect that continuity or change.
Sources for Choosing Cases and Gathering Information
http://www.start.umd.edu/start/
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
http://people.haverford.edu/bmendels/
Global Terrorism Resource Database—developed at Haverford College.
GENERAL DATA SOURCES FOR CHOOSING CASES
AND GATHERING EVIDENCE
The following sources will help you gather information on foreign policy.
For Domestic and Foreign Policies and the President
Public Papers of the President. Washington, DC: Federal Register Division,
National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration. Each Public Papers volume contains the papers and speeches of the president of the United States that were issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the specified time period.
Government Documents
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html
This government site provides access to U.S. government documents.
Websites for Foreign Policy Resources
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/forpol.html
The University of Michigan has an incredible site that contains a whole section on U.S. foreign policy. The section is divided into the following categories: Congress, declassified material, the executive branch, laws, the president, regulations, and website indexes.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/feros-pg.htm
Professor Vincent Ferraro of Mount Holyoke College has created an excellent site that contains a whole section on documents. Within it is a broad range of American foreign policy documents.
http://wsrv.clas.virginia.edu/~rjb3v/usgovt.html
This award-winning site lists resources for the study of foreign affairs.
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rich subject for research in international relations is the area of inter-national political economy (IPE). Issues in IPE include trade and money, North–South relations, economic parameters of power, and the role of international actors in the IPE. Also included in this area are issues related to economic integration in regions around the world. In this chapter, we discuss two ways to narrow questions about these topics by focusing on:
䊏 what international actors do or how they behave in the international
economy
䊏 how international economic policies or decisions affect people
The relationship between international politics and economics is a growing and important area of study, but it is sometimes difficult for students to develop a research paper in this area without a substantial academic base in economics; however, there are areas that you can explore, and we focus on these in this chapter.