Learning Objective 5.1: Describe the ebb and flow of legislative-executive relations over foreign policy matters since World War II.

Video

• Soft on defense?
  
  • Summary: An article describing that includes video links to former Representative Michele Bachmann and actor Kirk Cameron’s remarks at a conservative summit in 2012.

Web Resources

• Obama and Congress
  
  • Summary: An article describing statements from the White House regarding President Barack Obama’s intent to take more executive action in the face of congressional opposition.

• Helms v. UN
  
  • Summary: An article describing the change of view of a prominent opponent, Senator Jesse Helms, to U.S. cooperation with the United Nations.

• Bypassing Congress
  
  • Summary: An article describing President Barack Obama’s shift to the increased use of executive action to bypass Congress in 2012.

 

Learning Objective 5.2: Explain four constraints on congressional action.

Web Resources

• Congress at war
  
  • Summary: An opinion article arguing that Congress has historically done little to utilize constitutional checks and balances regarding war

 

Learning Objective 5.3: Summarize the institutional factors that determine the extent to which Congress engages in foreign policy.

Video

• Testifying on treaties
  
  • Summary: A video containing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks advocating to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ratification of a treaty on Arctic sea rights.

Web Resources

• LBJ and NASA
  
  • Summary: A description of then-Senator Lyndon Johnson’s involvement in the development of the space program as a tool of foreign policy in the Cold War.

• Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  
  • Summary: The web homepage of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

• House Armed Services Committee
  
  • Summary: The web homepage of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

 

Learning Objective 5.4: Identify the ways in which Congress has exercised authority regarding war powers and the use of force.

Video

• Mayaguez incident
  
  • Summary: A video containing President Gerald Ford’s remarks after the successful rescue of a U.S. commercial vessel from Cambodian forces.

           

Learning Objective 5.5: Discuss Congress’s power of the purse and the two key areas of foreign policy in which it comes into play.

Web Resources

• Waste not, Pentagon!
  
  • Summary: An article describing an audit of Pentagon funding and cost overruns.

• Shrinking the military. But how?
  • Summary: An interactive tool allowing users to explore potential budget cuts to the military.