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U.S. Foreign Policy

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U.S. Foreign Policy
The Paradox of World Power

FIFTH EDITION

Steven W. Hook
Kent State University

6
FOR INFORMATION:

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registered trademark of Congressional Quarterly Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hook, Steven W., 1959- author.

Title: U.S. foreign policy: the paradox of world power / Steven W. Hook, Kent State University.

Other titles: United States foreign policy

Description: Fifth edition. | Washington DC: CQ Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

7
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037801 | ISBN 978-1-5063-2158-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: United States—Foreign relations. | United States—Foreign relations—21st century. | United States—
Foreign relations—Decision making. | Balance of power.

Classification: LCC E183.7.H66 2016 | DDC 327.73—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037801

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Acquisitions Editor: Sarah Calabi

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Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.

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Indexer: Karen Wiley

Cover Designer: Gail Buschman

Marketing Manager: Amy Whitaker

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Brief Contents
1. Figures, Tables, Maps, and Boxes
2. Preface
3. PART I. The Setting of U.S. Foreign Policy
1. 1. The United States in a Turbulent World
2. 2. The Expansion of U.S. Power
3. 3. Dynamics of Decision Making
4. PART II. Inside-Out: Government Sources of Foreign Policy
1. 4. Presidential Power
2. 5. Congress beyond the “Water’s Edge”
3. 6. The Foreign Policy Bureaucracy
5. PART III. Outside-In: External Sources of Foreign Policy
1. 7. Public Opinion at Home and Abroad
2. 8. The Impact of Mass Communications
3. 9. Social Movements and Interest Groups
6. PART IV. Policy Domains
1. 10. National Security and Defense Policy
2. 11. Economic Statecraft
3. 12. Transnational Policy Problems
7. Appendix A: U.S. Administrations since World War II
8. Appendix B: The War Powers Resolution of 1973
9. Glossary
10. References
11. Author Citations Index
12. Subject Index
13. About the Author

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Detailed Contents
Figures, Tables, Maps, and Boxes
Preface
PART I. The Setting of U.S. Foreign Policy
1. The United States in a Turbulent World
Snapshot: America’s World Power
Challenges to U.S. Primacy
Cycles in the Balance of Power
The Shadow of the Past
Resistance to Globalization
Terrorism and Asymmetric Warfare
The Paradox of America’s World Power
Cultural Roots of the Paradox
Institutional Branches
Pervasive Civil Society
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
2. The Expansion of U.S. Power
Economic and Territorial Expansion
Manifest Destiny on the Western Frontier
Opening the Door to Asia
A Big Stick in Latin America
Fighting Two World Wars
The First World War
Failed Efforts to Keep the Peace
The Second World War
Global Primacy and the Cold War
New Structures of Foreign Policy
Regional Conflicts and the Vietnam Syndrome
The End of the Cold War
New Challenges after the Cold War
Elements of the New World Order
Overseas Unrest and Domestic Unease
September 11 and the War on Terrorism
A New Era of Power Politics
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
3. Dynamics of Decision Making

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The Global Context: Rival Perspectives
Assumptions of Structural Realism
Liberal Theory and Global Governance
Foreign Policy in a “Constructed” World
Opening the “Black Box” of Domestic Politics
The Impact of Civil Society
Foreign Policy in a “Small State”
Iron Triangles and Issue Networks
Coping with Bureaucratic Politics
Patterns of Organizational Behavior
State and Local Governments
The Human Factor
Beliefs and Cognitive “Shortcuts”
The Power of Personality
The Dangers of “Groupthink”
Crisis Decision Making
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
PART II. Inside-Out: Government Sources of Foreign Policy
4. Presidential Power
The Constitution’s Mixed Blessing
The Sharing of Foreign Policy Powers
White House Advantages over Congress
Constraints on Presidential Power
Presidential Prerogative in the “Zone of Twilight”
Setting the Foreign Policy Agenda
Organizing the Chain of Command
Taking the Initiative
Structures of the “Presidential Branch”
Advisory Systems in the Inner Circle
The Vice President’s Expanding Roles
Judicial Interventions in Foreign Policy
Rulings on Executive and Federal Power
Legal Quandaries in the War on Terror
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
5. Congress beyond the “Water’s Edge”
Trends in Legislative-Executive Relations
Collaboration and Discord in the Cold War
Tensions in the “New World Order”

11
Deference in the War on Terror
Partisan Pushback in the Obama Years
Constraints on Congressional Action
Legislating Foreign Policy
Dynamics of theLegislative Process
The Calculus of Voting Behavior
Foreign Policy by Committee
War Powers and the Use of Force
The War Powers Act
The Oversight of Torture
The Power of the Purse
Managing the Defense Budget
The Price of Diplomacy
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
6. The Foreign Policy Bureaucracy
Agency Dysfunctions and the Paradox of World Power
The Diplomatic Complex
Department of State
Criticism and Reform at Foggy Bottom
The Security Complex
National Security Council
Department of Defense
U.S. Military Alliances
Department of Homeland Security
The Intelligence Complex
Intelligence Failures and Scandals
Growing Reliance on Covert Operations
The Economic Complex
Key Players in Economic Policy
International Financial Institutions
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
PART III. Outside-In: External Sources of Foreign Policy
7. Public Opinion at Home and Abroad
Democracy and the Paradox of World Power
Rival Views of Political Leadership
Mood Swings or Pragmatism?
America’s Knowledge Gap
Public Opinion since World War II

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Consensus and Discord during the Cold War
Public Ambivalence in the Clinton Era
Rallying around the Flag after 9/11
The Onset of War Fatigue
The View from Overseas
Opinions on War and Peace
Group Identities and Foreign Policy Views
Physical Identities: Gender, Race, and Generation
Social Identities: Education, Wealth, and Religion
Political Identities: Ideology and Political Party
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
8. The Impact of Mass Communications
Functions of the News Media
Patterns of Foreign News Coverage
Evolving Technologies and Media Coverage
Characteristics of World News
The Seduction of “Soft News”
Government Efforts to Control the Message
“Framing” U.S. Foreign Policy
Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communications
Leaking Foreign Policy: For Better and Worse
The Social Media Revolution
The Foreign Policy Blogosphere
Social Media’s Call to Arms
Online News and Views from Overseas
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
9. Social Movements and Interest Groups
Group Action and the Paradox
Dynamics of Social Movements
Antiwar Protests fromVietnam to Iraq
The Christian Conversion on Foreign Aid
The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street
Types of Foreign Policy NGOs
Religious and Ethnic Groups
Public Interest Groups
Think Tanks and Private Foundations
Group Strategies and Tactics
Consciousness Raising

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Political Pressure and Lobbying
Policy and Program Implementation
Civil Disobedience
Buying Power: The Corporate Connection
The Military-Industrial Complex
Trade Associations and Labor Unions
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
PART IV. Policy Domains
10. National Security and Defense Policy
The Foundation of Strategy
Elements of Strategic Thought
The Evolution of U.S. Grand Strategy
From Strategy to Tactics
High-Tech Tactics: Drones and Cyberwarfare
Justifying the Use of Force
Decisions on War and Peace
Threats and Coercive Diplomacy
Preemptive and Preventive War: The Iraq Precedent
The Nuclear Shadow
Deterrence in Theory and Practice
The Missile Defense Controversy
Waging War on Terror
The Nature of Terrorism
Elements of U.S. Counterterrorism
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
11. Economic Statecraft
Models of Political Economy
The Balance of Economic Power
Strengths and Weaknesses of the U.S. Economy
The Financial Crisis and Recovery
Trade Policy as a “Two-Level Game”
Global Trade Politics
Domestic Trade Politics
National Interests and Foreign Aid
Economic Sanctions as a Policy Tool
Forms and Functions of Sanctions
Prominent Cases of U.S. Sanctions
Conclusion

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Key Terms
Internet References
12. Transnational Policy Problems
Managing the Global Commons
Population Growth and Family Planning
The Specter of Global Warming
Energy and the Environment
The Immigration Debate
The Dangers of Weapons Proliferation
Promoting Human Rights and Democracy
A Distinctive View of Human Rights
Prospects for “Exporting” Democracy
Threats to Democracy at Home
Conclusion
Key Terms
Internet References
Appendix A: U.S. Administrations since World War II
Appendix B: The War Powers Resolution of 1973
Glossary
References
Author Citations Index
Subject Index
About the Author

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Figures, Tables, Maps, and Boxes

Figures
1.1 The World in 2030: The Global Power Index Forecast 5
1.2 World Economic Output, Seven Largest Producers by GDP, 2014 9
1.3 World Military Expenditures, Top Ten Spenders, 2014 10
2.1 Multipolar Balance of World Power (mid-nineteenth century) 37
2.2 Bipolar Balance of Power in Early Cold War 49
2.3 U.S. Economic Growth, 1885–1945 54
2.4 Unipolar Balance of World Power, 2010 62
3.1 Converging Factors in the Foreign Policy Process 85
3.2 The Matrix of U.S. Foreign Policy 88
3.3 Policy Influence and Control: Two Models of State-Society Relations 89
3.4 The Iron Triangle 91
3.5 Trans-Pacific Partnership Issue Network 92
4.1 Influences on the President in Foreign Policy 113
4.2 Executive Agreements versus Treaties 119
4.3 Foreign Policy in the White House: Selected Units Engaged in Foreign Policy
129
4.4 Management Styles in U.S. Foreign Policy 131
5.1 Plunging Public Approval of Congress, 2000–2015 149
5.2 Spectrum of Congress’s Attitude toward the White House 150
5.3 Sources of Congressional Voting Behavior 161
5.4 Key Congressional Foreign Policy Committees and Subcommittees: 114th
Congress, 2015 163
5.5 National Defense Outlays, Fiscal Years 2004–2014 173
5.6 Distribution of Federal Spending as a Percentage of Total, Fiscal Year 2013 176
6.1 The U.S. Foreign Policy Bureaucracy 185
6.2 U.S. Department of State 191
6.3 U.S. Department of Defense 200
6.4 U.S. Department of Homeland Security 204
6.5 Hub and Spokes: The Intelligence Complex 208
7.1 Interest and Influence in U.S. Foreign Policy: A “Semisovereign” Public? 229
7.2 Underachieving: Civics Knowledge of U.S. Students, 2014 235
7.3 George W. Bush Public Opinion and Rally Effects, February 2, 2001–April 18,
2004 243
7.4 Bush’s Public Decline: The Foreign Policy Connection 244
7.5 U.S. Favorability Ratings from Overseas, 2014 249
7.6 Societal Gaps in Public Knowledge: Percentage of Americans Who Could

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Identify... 252
8.1 Home Sweet Home: News Coverage of Foreign and Domestic Issues, June
2014–April 2015 262
8.2 The News Media’s Bidirectional Impact 264
8.3 Reliance on Sources of News, 2014 271
8.4 News Articles about Gaza before and after Its 2014 War with Israel 273
8.5 The NSA’s PRISM Program 280
9.1 The Cycle of Public Pressure and Political Change 299
9.2 NGOs and the UN: Members with ECOSOC Consultative Status, 1994–2014
305
9.3 Select Foreign Policy Think Tanks: The Ideological Spectrum 311
10.1 Spectrum of Armed Conflict 333
10.2 The Strategic Matrix 334
10.3 Smaller but Stronger: The Shrinking American Navy 341
10.4 Acts of Terror Worldwide, 2001–2014 357
11.1 U.S. Balance of Trade, 1970–2014 379
11.2 Falling Fortunes: Index of Four Global Stock Markets, September 30–October
27, 2008 382
11.3 Quantity vs. Quality: Development Aid Volume and Levels of Sacrifice among
Top Ten Donors, 2014 391
12.1 Trends in Global Population Growth 407
12.2 Top Ten Sources of Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 2012 410
12.3 Global Oil Reserves by Region, 2015 413
12.4 Top Ten Global Arms Merchants, 2014 420

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Tables
1.1 Top Ten Universities in the World, 2015 11
1.2 Young Americans and Educational Attainment, 8th Grade 25
2.1 U.S. Foreign Policy Chronology, 1783–1945 36
2.2 U.S. Foreign Policy Chronology: The Cold War 48
2.3 U.S. Foreign Policy Chronology: Post–Cold War 65
3.1 Theory in Practice: U.S. Foreign Policy toward People’s Republic of China
(PRC) 84
3.2 Levels of Analysis: Actors and Actions 86
3.3 Rational Action versus the Real World 87
3.4 The Political Psychologies of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush 101
4.1 The Constitutional Balance of Power 116
4.2 Post–World War II Presidential Doctrines 125
4.3 Major Supreme Court Rulings on Foreign Affairs, 1920–2012 136
5.1 Selected Congressional Oversight Hearings on U.S. Foreign Policy, Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, 113th Congress (2013–2014) 165
5.2 Post–Cold War U.S. Military Actions and Congressional Roles 168
6.1 The Many Faces of U.S. Diplomacy 194
6.2 Members of the National Security Council (NSC) 196
6.3 Caught by Surprise: Major U.S. Intelligence Failures, 1941–2014 212
6.4 Agencies of Foreign Economic Policy 217
7.1 U.S. Public Knowledge about World Affairs: Nationwide Survey Results, 1942–
2014 236
7.2 Support for Active U.S. Participation in World Affairs, 1974–2014 239
7.3 Public Priorities in the 2012 Presidential Election 245
7.4 Global Public Opinion of U.S. Foreign Policy, 2009 247
7.5 The “Divine Divide” in U.S. Foreign Policy 253
8.1 Public (In)Attention to World News 261
8.2 Cable Networks and the Iraq War, Spring 2003 268
8.3 Top Ten Online News Sites, January 2015 283
8.4 Global Online Populations, 2014 284
8.5 Selected English-Language Foreign News Outlets 289
9.1 The Iraq War Protest Coalition 300
9.2 Think Tanks on the Take? Selected Foreign Government Payoffs to the
Brookings Institution, 2010–2013 312
9.3 The World’s Twenty Largest Corporations, 2014 320
9.4 Top Ten U.S. Military Contractors, 2014 322
10.1 Global Military Balance of Power, 2015 331
10.2 Geographical Distribution of Active-Duty U.S. Military Personnel, March
2015 335

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10.3 America’s Nuclear Arsenal, 2015 353
11.1 Top Ten World Merchandise Traders, 2013 378
11.2 Top Ten U.S. Trading Partners, 2014 384
11.3 Top Ten Recipients of U.S. Foreign Aid, 1993–2013 393
11.4 Types and Examples of U.S. Economic Sanctions 396
12.1 Hard Evidence of Global Warming? Fifteen Hottest Years on Record, 1880–
2014 409
12.2 Top Ten Populations Granted U.S. Permanent Resident Status, 2013 417

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Maps
ii The World ii
2.1 Nineteenth-Century European Empires and U.S. Continental Expansion 40
2.2 Cold War Division of Europe 50
2.3 Cold War Alliances with the United States 57
2.4 Post–Cold War U.S. Military Operations 66
6.1 Department of Defense Regional Commands 199
6.2 NATO Expansion 203
10.1 Nuclear Threats and U.S. Defense Installations 351
10.2 Areas under the Control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria 359
11.1 U.S. Foreign Economic Relations 386
12.1 Freedom in the World, 2014 422

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Boxes

In Their Own Words


Alexis de Tocqueville 23
Barack Obama 33
George Kennan 51
Robert M. Gates 95
Theodore Roosevelt 115
Members of the U.S. Senate 156
Condoleezza Rice 187
Woodrow Wilson 231
Edward Snowden 278
Dwight D. Eisenhower 324
U.S. Department of Defense 337
Donald Rumsfeld 362
Christopher Dodd 381
Franklin D. Roosevelt 427

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Point/Counterpoint
U.S. Decline vs. Continued Primacy 7
Hamilton vs. Jefferson 38
Realists vs. Liberals on Causes of War 83
Clashing Views of Obama’s Foreign Policy 133
Congress vs. UN Ambassador Susan Rice 159
Military Use of Drones 214
Public Opinion: Master or Pawn? 234
The Iraq War: Hawks vs. Doves in the Blogosphere 287
Iran Nuclear Negotiations 313
Russia’s Power Play in Ukraine 344
The United States and China: Partners or Rivals? 376
Strains in the Melting Pot 416

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Preface

The United States today remains the world’s preeminent world power. It is also an
embattled and increasingly exhausted power, confronting both the limits of its domestic
resources and its capacity to manage rapidly changing conditions overseas. How U.S.
foreign policy makers respond to the many challenges facing them will dictate the course of
the twenty-first century—not just for the United States but for all states and societies.

The first decade of the twenty-first century proved withering for American leaders, who
endured the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; launched protracted wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq; suffered natural and man-made catastrophes in the Gulf of Mexico;
and ended the decade reeling from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. By
the time President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, the United States faced four
crises at once: (1) a financial crisis, with banks and mortgage houses in disarray; (2) a fiscal
crisis, with spiraling budget deficits and foreign debts; (3) a political crisis, with partisan
gridlock at levels unseen in decades; and (4) a strategic crisis, with U.S. military capacity
drained by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and by repeated setbacks in fighting
asymmetric wars.

The Bush-Obama years also produced a credibility crisis, with many nations overseas upset
over U.S. actions such as the torture of suspected terrorists; the “targeted killings” of
enemies using aerial drones; and the covert surveillance of U.S. citizens and foreign leaders,
including NATO allies. Under these conditions, sustaining the nation’s global primacy, the
centerpiece of the post–Cold War grand strategy, can no longer be assumed. In sum, the
United States lost its way at the very historic moment when its self-proclaimed mission to
re-create the global order in its image seemed within its reach.

These developments reveal a paradox in the U.S. experience as a world power: the very
sources of strength for the United States during its steady growth—a deeply ingrained sense
of national exceptionalism, the diffusion and limitations of political powers, the free rein
granted to civil society, and the promotion of free markets domestically and globally—have
increasingly become sources of vulnerability. The decentralized federal government, largely
unchanged for more than two centuries, seems unable to manage the rapid changes taking
place overseas. Meanwhile, non-state actors such as multinational corporations, powerful
ethnic and religious groups, Internet outlets such as WikiLeaks, and transnational agents of
global governance, all of which are viewed as vital to American-style democracy, limit the
options and actions of U.S. foreign policy makers. Thus, the United States may be
considered a victim as well as a beneficiary of its own success.

This lesson is clearly evident in recent events. The near collapse of the U.S. financial system
could be seen as a logical extension of the nation’s laissez-faire economic system that

23
discouraged regulation while encouraging (and rewarding) reckless speculation and lending
practices. The deep recession that greeted President Obama upon his election forced him to
focus on domestic recovery—an effort that overshadowed his stature as a global leader and
stymied his ability to clear a new path for U.S. foreign policy. More recently, the so-called
Islamic State terrorist group gained attention and recruits through the creative use of social
media, a technology pioneered in the United States.

The paradox also applies to fateful decisions on war and peace. American leaders have
maintained a “separate peace” with other industrialized democracies, while engaging in
recurring conflicts against authoritarian regimes and failed states. As international relations
theorist Michael Doyle (1983) observed more than a quarter of a century ago, “The very
constitutional restraint, shared commercial interests, and international respect for
individual rights that promote peace among liberal societies can exacerbate conflicts in
relations between liberal and nonliberal societies” (324–325).1. This problem is
compounded by the double standards commonly adopted by U.S. leaders, who preach the
gospel of democratic freedoms while tolerating repression in strategically vital countries
such as Saudi Arabia and China.

Obama’s second term brought a variety of new challenges to U.S. primacy. The Islamic
State’s occupation of large swaths of Syria and Iraq raised fundamental questions about the
Mideast’s future political map. Russia’s 2014 seizure of the Crimean Peninsula, a region
that was part of neighboring Ukraine, renewed tensions between Moscow and NATO.
China’s government, another aspirant for great-power status, flexed its muscles by claiming
off-shore islands also claimed by other states in the South and East China Seas. Taken
together, this turbulence suggests a world order out of sync. To Richard N. Haass,
president of the Council on Foreign Relations, “The question is not whether the world will
continue to unravel but how fast and how far.”2

As noted earlier, the paradox outlined in this book is ultimately based on the attributes that
enabled the United States to expand steadily and serve so often as a catalyst for constructive
change beyond its shores. These same strengths, however, contain the seeds of possible peril
and threats to U.S. primacy. How have American citizens responded to these tectonic
shifts? A 2014 survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that 40 percent of
Americans believed that “the U.S. should stay out of world affairs,”3 the highest level of
isolationism recorded in the council’s forty-year history. As the nation muddles its way
through its fractious domestic politics and growing foreign policy concerns, a central
question confronts students and practitioners of foreign policy: Can America endure as the
foremost world power, despite itself?

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Objectives and Structure of the Book
My primary objective in writing this book is to explore this paradox, identify its key sources
and manifestations, and consider its future implications. Because of the sheer magnitude of
U.S. military might, economic wealth, and political and cultural influence, the choices of
U.S. foreign policy makers resonate in all corners of the world. Those choices, however, are
made within a domestic institutional setting that is purposefully conflicted. The coherence
of U.S. policy choices is impaired further by transnational civil society—including
corporations, nonprofit interest groups, the news media, and global public opinion—that
are integral components of the U.S. foreign policy process.

Because the contradictions and dilemmas inherent to U.S. foreign policy are woven into the
nation’s culture and institutional structure, they are unlikely to be overcome anytime soon.
The stakes in the policy process for all American citizens, however, will remain enormous.
If this book helps readers make sense of these cascading developments, and if the link
between the process and the conduct of U.S. foreign policy can be more fully grasped, then
the book will have achieved its main purpose.

My secondary goal for this book is to present a clear and concise, yet comprehensive,
overview of the U.S. foreign policy process to students at all levels. Instructors deserve a text
that meets their pedagogical needs. Their students, meanwhile, deserve a text that is tightly
organized, limited in its use of jargon, visually appealing, and even pleasurable to read. No
account of U.S. foreign policy will have its intended effect if its readers are lost in
translation.

To this end, the twelve chapters that follow are organized into four parts—each with three
chapters and each of roughly equal length—that cover distinct aspects of U.S. foreign
policy. Part I introduces the book’s theme, reviews key historical developments and
milestones, and identifies theories of foreign policy analysis that shed light on the decision-
making process. This latter material, found in Chapter 3, forms the analytic core of the
book. Part II examines the roles of government actors and their institutional structures.
Clashes between the executive and legislative branches, which occur alongside bureaucratic
rivarlies, are of particular interest. In Part III, external pressures from civil society—
including public opinion, the news media, and interest groups—take center stage. Finally,
Part IV highlights the three primary domains of U.S. foreign policy: national security,
foreign economic relations, and transnational concerns such as climate change. All the
chapters have been updated thoroughly in terms of both the scholarly literature and
coverage of recent developments in U.S. foreign policy. The narrative, including references
and key terms, has been tightened in order to encourage more focused reading.

This analytic framework was designed to facilitate instruction in several ways. The
symmetrical structure of the volume lends itself to break points and examinations at regular

25
intervals. The boxed features—Point/Counterpoint and In Their Own Words—summarize
ongoing debates and provide insightful perspectives on the policy process. The references
direct readers to the vast supporting literature on U.S. foreign policy that informs research
papers and subsequent study. The selected Internet references (links) that appear at the end
of each chapter are another useful resource for students. Finally, a detailed glossary defines
the key concepts introduced in bold type throughout the text. It is preceded by two
appendixes that list U.S. administrations since World War II and presents the text of the
War Powers Resolution of 1973.

This edition features new learning objectives that offer students measurable takeaways for
each chapter and engages students in close, focused reading. The revisions highlight both
global and domestic shifts in the balance of power that affect U.S. foreign policy. Globally,
this edition addresses topics such as rapid developments in the global economy, the revival
of great-power rivalry, and ongoing political violence in the Middle East. Domestic
coverage includes trends in the U.S. economy, political polarization, domestic intelligence,
and the effects of social media as a primary venue for news and opinion. Throughout, the
fifth edition continues to ask the most pressing question of whether U.S. foreign policy
makers can manage these dynamics in a manner that preserves U.S. values at home and
primacy abroad.

26
ANCILLARIES

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27
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This fifth edition, like the first four, drew on the talents and hard work of a large
supporting cast. I am grateful to the entire editorial team at CQ Press and SAGE for
making this revision not only manageable but also highly enjoyable. As always, Charisse
Kiino, director for the college division of CQ Press and SAGE, fully supported the project.
Acquisitions editor Sarah Calabi provided early guidance, and senior development editor
Nancy Matuszak kept the project and its many moving parts on schedule. Allison Hughes
was instrumental in getting the book’s ancillary content to the finish line. Libby Larson
skillfully guided the manuscript through production, and Diane DiMura, my copy editor,
made sense of my often tortured prose and called out contradictions and ambiguities.
Raquel Christie also provided superb editorial support from the CQ Press offices in
Washington, D.C. In Kent, Ohio, my research assistants, Eli C. Kaul and Jason Adkins,
guided my literature reviews, gathered data, proofread early chapter drafts, and generally
helped me “tame The Beast”—our affectionate term for this ambitious and challenging
project.

Many reviewers provided much-needed criticism at various stages of the project. They
include Linda Adams, Baylor University; Leslie Baker, Mississippi State University; Brian
Bow, Dalhousie University; Michael G. Huelshoff, University of New Orleans; Ivan Dinev
Ivanov, University of Cincinnati; Choong-Nam Kang, Murray State University; Steven
Green Livingston, Middle Tennessee State University; Peter H. Loedel, West Chester
University; David Bell Mislan, American University; Seana Sugrue, Ave Maria University;
and one anonymous reviewer. Their suggestions were consistently on target and very useful
in guiding this revision. I am also grateful to my students, near and far, who have freely
offered their comments about the text either in the classroom or via shook@kent.edu. Any
deficiencies in the volume stem from my own inability to heed their collective guidance.

1Michael Doyle, “Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs: Part 2,” Philosophy and
Public Affairs 12, no. 3 (1983): 324–325 (emphasis in original).

2Richard N. Haass, “The Unraveling: How to Respond to a Disordered World,” Foreign


Affairs 93, no. 6 (2014). https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2014-10-
20/unraveling.

3 Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Foreign Policy in the New Millennium: Results of
the 2012 Chicago Council Survey of American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy
(Chicago: Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2012).
http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/UserFiles/File/Task%20Force%20
Reports/2012_CCS_Report.pdf.

28
Part I The Setting of U.S. Foreign Policy

29
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upon them a ray which they will reflect and send back to his own
eye, he will see in the centre of each a spot with the brightness of
burnished silver. He will be tempted to think that this spot is a bubble
of air; but, by immersing the ice in hot water, you can melt the ice all
around the spot,—and when it alone remains, you will see it diminish
and disappear without any trace of air. The spot is a vacuum. Such is
the faithfulness to herself with which Nature operates; thus, in all her
operations, does she submit to her own laws. We know that ice, in
melting, contracts; and here we arrest the contraction, as it were, in
the very act. The water of the flowers cannot fill the space occupied
by the ice which by its fusion has given birth to them; hence the
production of a vacuum, the inseparable companion of each liquid
flower.
The fragment of compact ice whose elements assume such
beautiful crystalline forms is itself a crystal. This was shown by Sir
David Brewster, who employed for the purpose of analysis that
modified form of light which we call polarised light. It is singularly well
adapted to bring out the peculiarities of the main structure of
substances, owing to the coloured figures which it outlines on a
screen after passing through them. All crystals with an axis—such,
for instance, as Iceland spar—yield a series of brilliantly-tinted rings,
traversed by a regularly-formed cross entirely black. As ice produces
the same figures, we are justified in attributing to it the same kind of
crystallization. We must note, however, that we are referring now to
the thick ice formed on our canals and lakes. If we examined the first
film formed on the surface of the water, we should discover in it a
completely irregular crystallization, the ray of polarised light
producing only a mosaic of varied tints, distributed without any order.
But it is easy to explain the way in which this primary crust or film is
produced. Those portions of the fluid mass in contact with the air are
the first to freeze, but each molecule of ice abandons its heat to the
contiguous water, which thereby is slightly raised in temperature, and
the result is a partial congelation. The surface we are examining then
presents a network of fine needles intercrossed in every direction,
and forming a kind of delicate lace, the meshes or intervals of which
are gradually filled up. When the network is transformed into a
continuous sheet, the loss of heat is diminished more and more as
this external crust grows thicker and thicker; but the development of
the ice invariably takes place by means of long interlaced needles,
as the reader may see for himself by breaking off a portion from the
nearest pond (in winter), and examining the sectional surface.
Having said thus much in reference to the crystallization of ice
and snow, we proceed to explain the regelation and moulding of ice.
Some years ago, Faraday astonished the scientific world by a very
curious experiment. Splitting into two parts a piece of ice, he brought
together the parts at the moment that fusion took place on their
surfaces, and they united immediately. How are we to account for
this effect, which can be produced even in hot water?
When the temperature of water rises, the surface molecules first
become liquid, then gaseous; being placed beyond the coercitive
action of the surrounding particles, they are easily set free;
transported, on the contrary, into the centre of the mass, they are
brought absolutely under the influence of this action, which induces a
new solidification,—or, to use the scientific term, a regelation. In this
way it becomes easy to understand how very various forms can be
communicated by simple pressure to a fragment of ice. If the
observer successively places a straight bar in moulds of increasing
curvature, he may easily compel it to assume the shape of a ring or
even of a knot. In each mould, it is true, the ice breaks; but if the
pressure is kept up, the surfaces of the fragments are brought into
contact, and adhere so as to re-establish a condition of continuity. A
snowball may thus be converted into a sphere of ice, and the sphere,
by constant pressure, into a cup or a statue.
Professor Tyndall refers to a remarkable instance of regelation
which he observed one day in early spring. A layer of snow, not quite
two inches thick, had fallen on the glass roof of a small conservatory,
and the internal air, warming the panes, had melted the snow so far
as it was in immediate contact with them. The entire layer had
slipped down the pane, and projected beyond the edge of the roof,
without falling, and had bent and curved as required, just like a
flexible body.
MOULDING ICE.

The snow-fields which overspread the upper part of every glacier,


whether in the Arctic Regions or elsewhere, are composed of
crystallized snow, whose fragile, delicate, and fairy-like architecture
endures so long as it remains dry, but undergoes a great
transformation when the sun, melting the upper stratum, allows the
water to interpenetrate its substance. The fluid, congealing anew
during the night, transforms the snow into the condition technically
known as névé; a term given by the Swiss physicists to a granular
mass composed of small rounded icicles, disaggregated, but more
adhesive than snow-flakes, and of a density intermediate between
that of snow and that of ice. Under the pressure of new layers, and
as a result of infiltrations of water, the névé unites, and solders into
ice of constantly increasing compactness.
But glacier-ice presents some other curious peculiarities. Every
abundant snow-fall on the summit of the mountains forms a layer
easily distinguishable from preceding layers—which, in most cases,
have already passed into the névé condition. This stratification
becomes more apparent when the whiteness of the surface has
been sullied by dirt or dust wafted on “the wings of the wind.” It is
perceptible also in ice; but here we must not confound it with another
phenomenon of which the cause is different, the veined structure.
In places where glaciers have been accidentally cut down in an
almost vertical direction, the section is found to exhibit a series of
parallel veins, formed by a beautiful and very transparent azure ice
in the midst of the general mass, which is of a whitish colour, and
slightly opaque.
In different glaciers, and in different parts of the same glacier,
these blue veins will vary in number and intensity of colouring. They
are specially beautiful in crevasses of recent formation, and on the
sides of channels excavated in the ice by tiny rills resulting from
superficial fusion. Not a few glaciers exhibit this remarkable veined
structure throughout their entire extent. When a vertical cutting
exposes the delicate azure network to atmospheric influences, the
softer ice melts prior to the fusion of the blue ice which then remains
in their detached leaflets. On examining these attentively, we cannot
fail to remark the absence, or, at all events, the extreme rarity, of air-
bubbles, though they are so plentiful in the coarser ice.
Professor Tyndall’s explanation of this phenomenon is as
interesting as it is ingenious. While on a visit of inspection to the
slate-quarries of Wales, he had occasion to study the cleavage of
the rocks which compose them; in other words, their faculty of
dividing naturally, a property inherent in all crystals. The schistous
slate separates easily into sheets, and in traversing different quarries
one sees that all the planes of cleavage are parallel in each. From
this circumstance our men of science were at first induced to look
upon slates as the products of the stratification of different deposits.
Such an explanation, however, could not be accepted by Tyndall,
when he observed that the minute fossils embedded in them were
constantly misshapen and flattened in the direction of the plane of
cleavage, because the great modification they had undergone could
not have taken place in superimposed strata at the bottom of the
primeval sea. He concluded that these schists, therefore, must have
been subjected to a considerable pressure; and further, that this
pressure must have been exercised at right angles with the plane of
separation of the different layers.
A long series of experiments proved that many bodies, when
forcibly compressed, exhibit in their structure a very distinctly marked
lamination, and frequently veins of very great beauty.
He carefully examined iron which had passed under the steam-
hammer, or through the rolling-mill; clay and wax were subjected to
the hydraulic press. In all cases he detected signs of cleavage; and
hence we are justified in the inference that the phenomenon is
invariably produced by pressure in all bodies of irregular internal
structure. Such is the result with glacier-ice, from whose mass the
air-bubbles introduced by the snow are gradually expelled. At first of
brilliant whiteness, it assumes, in the parallel layers corresponding to
the planes of cleavage, those beautiful azure tints which characterize
the veined structure. So little has it to do with stratification, that in
places where this is apparent it has given rise to a series of
horizontal lines, while the parallel veinings, in the same masses of
ice, are all inclined at an angle of about 60°.
The tendency to cleavage in compact ice would seem to explain
the regular form of those fragments or detached pieces with which
some parts of the glaciers are covered. Usually they occur as cubes,
or as rectangular parallelopipeds. The Alpine mountaineers name
them séracs,—in allusion to their resemblance to certain cheeses
which bear this name, and which are manufactured in rectangular
boxes. They have been found in many parts of a really colossal size,
measuring fifty feet in length, breadth, and depth, and as regular in
shape as if they had been hewn with a chisel.
There are many interesting points connected with the formation
and constitution of glaciers which we should gladly discuss, but we
are confined by our limits to remarks of a general character, and we
must now pass on to speak of the phenomena attendant upon their
motion. No doubt, the traveller who for the first time comes in sight of
one of these huge ice-rivers, and sees the mighty mass apparently
rooted to its valley-bed, solid, unchangeable, adamantine, finds it
hard to believe that it moves onward with a certain and an unresting,
though a gradual progress. It looks like a noble river, suddenly
petrified by some overwhelming force: congealed, as it flowed, in a
moment, by some irresistible spell! Such, indeed, is the conception
of the poet:—
“Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain’s brow
Adown enormous ravines slope amain....
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,
And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge!
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!”

And this conception is justified by the aspect of the glacier. Thus,


of the Glacier du Géant, Professor Tyndall says:—“It stretches
smoothly for a long distance, then becomes disturbed, and then
changes to a great frozen cascade, down which the ice appears to
tumble in wild confusion. Above the cascade you see an expanse of
shining snow, occupying an area of some square miles.” But we shall
see that here, as in the world of man, appearances are deceitful, and
that the glacier well deserves to be called an ice-river, in allusion to
its regular and continuous motion.
Between the snow-fall in the higher regions of the globe, and the
quantity of snow which every summer disappears through
liquefaction, the difference is very considerable. The supply, so to
speak, exceeds the demand, and a residuum is annually left. It is
only below the perpetual snow-line that the snow created and
accumulated in winter is wholly melted in the warm season. And,
therefore, if for any considerable period the excess upon any
particular mountain continued to accumulate, immense masses of
ice would gradually rise to the extreme height in the atmosphere
affected by aqueous phenomena.
Rendu, the Roman Catholic prelate, who first led the way to the
discovery of the true nature of glaciers, says, very justly,—“The
economy of the world would be soon destroyed, if at certain points
accumulations of matter prevailed. The centre of gravity of the globe
would be insensibly displaced, and the admirable regularity of its
movements would be succeeded by disorder and perturbation. If the
Poles did not send back to the Equatorial seas the waters which,
reduced into vapour, issue daily from these burning regions, to be
converted into ice in the Arctic and Antarctic Zones, ocean would be
drained dry, and life would cease, as well as water, to circulate
throughout our world. The Creator, however, in order to ensure the
permanence of His almighty work, has called into existence the vast
and powerful law of circulation, and this law the careful observer
sees reproduced in all the economy of Nature. The water circulates
from the ocean into the air, from the air it spreads over the earth, and
from the earth it passes into the seas. The rivers return from whence
they came, in order that they may issue forth anew; the air circulates
around the globe, and, as it were, upon itself, passing and repassing
successively at all the altitudes of the atmospheric column. The
elements of every organic substance circulates in changing from the
solid to the liquid or aëriform state, and in returning from the latter to
the state of solidity or organization. It is not improbable that the
universal agent which we designate under the name of fire, light,
electricity, and magnetism, has probably also a circle of circulation
as extensive as the universe. Should its movements ever be known
to us more than they now are, it is probable that they would afford
the solution of a host of problems which still defy the intellect of man.
Circulation is the law of life, the method of action employed by
Providence in the administration of the universe. In the insect, as in
the plant, as in the human body, we find a circulation, or rather
several circulations,—blood, humours, elements, fire, all which enter
into the composition of the individual.”
However fanciful may be some of the amiable prelate’s
speculations, it is certain that the glaciers obey this law of circulation.
The snow-accumulations in the upper regions are to some extent
reduced by the descent of the avalanches,—that is, of masses of
snow and ice which detach themselves from the mountain-sides and
dash headlong into the valleys below, where they are rapidly melted
by the warmer atmosphere. But this would, in itself, be wholly
insufficient. Another movement, at once more efficacious and more
regular, is necessary; a movement which embraces the entire
system of the ice-masses, and which carries the glaciers below the
perpetual snow-line, so that every year they may give up a portion of
their terminal extremities. The discovery of this general progression
is one of the most fertile with which, of late years, the physics of the
globe have been enriched.
Professor Tyndall rightly observes that there are numerous
obvious indications of the existence of glacier-motion, though it is too
slow to catch the eye at once. The crevasses change within certain
limits from year to year, and sometimes from month to month; and
this could not be if the ice did not move. Rocks and stones also are
observed, which have been plainly torn from the mountain-sides.
Blocks seen to fall from particular points are afterwards noticed lower
down. On the moraines rocks are found of a totally different
mineralogical character from those composing the mountains right
and left; and in all such cases strata of the same character are found
bordering the glacier higher up. Hence the conclusion that the
foreign boulders have been floated down by the ice. Further, the
ends or “snouts” of many glaciers act like ploughshares on the land
in front of them, overturning with irresistible energy the huts and
châlets that lie in their path. Facts like these have been long known
to the inhabitants of the High Alps, who were thus made acquainted
in a vague and general way with the motion of the glaciers. But
Science cannot deal with generalities: it requires precise and
accurate information; and this information, so far as the progression
of the glaciers is concerned, has been obtained through the patient
labours of Rendu, Charpentier, Agassiz, Desor, Vogt, Professor
Forbes, Bravais, Charles Martins, Hopkins, Professor Tyndall,
Colomb, John Ball, and Schlagintweit. Their experiments and
observations have established the truth of certain immutable
principles, and proved the existence of a general law of movement.
The accumulation of the débris hurled headlong by the mountains
forms on the glacier-surface long lines of stone and earth, which are
called moraines; these diverge in certain directions, according to the
circumstances we now come to explain.
The landslips which occur on the banks or edges of the glacier
give rise to the lateral moraines, which are enlarged and extended
daily by the twofold effect of the fall of stones and débris, and the
progressive movement which carries them along with the whole
mass of ice. Towards the centre of the great glaciers, in almost every
case, is found a medial moraine; the result of the encounter of the
lateral moraines of two glaciers which have united into one. These
superficial moraines participating in the movement of the glacier,
each of their blocks eventually rolls to the foot of the terminal
precipice, and thus a frontal moraine is formed on the very soil of the
valley, like an embankment raised to prohibit the further advance of
the ice. And, lastly, the bed of sand, gravel, pebbles, and detritus
which is found beneath the glacier, and over which it glides, is called
the profound moraine.
The furrows wrought by this last-named stratum on the bottom of
the glacier-channels show the wonderful force of friction which the
glacier exercises during its descent. The depths of these furrows
depends entirely on the hardness of the débris carried down by the
glacier, and the nature of the rocks submitted to the friction. The
polish assumed by these rocks when they are sufficiently solid to
resist the thunderous march of the glacier, indicates the enormous
pressure which it exercises on the slopes of the valley through which
it forces its way. This effort, bearing principally on the side of the
rocks turned in the direction of their crests, impresses upon them a
peculiar rounded form, so like the appearance of a flock of sheep
(moutons) that De Saussure gave them the name of roches
moutonnées.
Connected with the scientific evidence of the progressive
movement of glaciers, a glacier in the Bernese Oberland will for ever
be memorable. Two branch glaciers, the Lauteraar and the
Finsteraar, unite at a promontory called the Abschwung to form the
trunk-glacier of the Unteraar, which carries a great medial moraine
along its colossal back.
Here in 1827, an “intrepid and enthusiastic” Swiss professor,
Hugi, of Solothurm (or Soleure), erected a small cabin of stones for
the purpose of observations upon the glacier. The hut moved, and he
took steps to measure its motion. In three years, 1827 to 1830, it
moved 330 feet downwards. In 1836 it had descended 2354 feet;
and in 1841, it had accomplished a journey of 4712 feet. [This was at
the rate of about 336 feet a year.]
In 1840, M. Agassiz, with some scientific friends, Messrs. Desor,
Vogt, and Nicolieb, established themselves under a great
overhanging slab of rock on the same moraine, and by means of
side walls, and other appliances, constructed a rough abode which,
because some of these men of science came from Neufchâtel, they
named the “Hôtel des Neuchâtelois.”
In two years after its erection, Agassiz discovered that it had
moved downwards no less a distance than 486 feet.
These and some similar measurements brought to light a very
important fact. The reader will observe that the middle numbers,
corresponding to the central portion of the glacier, are the largest:
hence it was obvious that the centre of a glacier, like that of a river,
moves more rapidly than the sides.
Owing to the greater central motion of a glacier, its crevasses
invariably assume a curved outline, of which the convexity advances
towards the bottom of the valley.
It has also been ascertained that the superficial part of a glacier
moves more rapidly than its base.
Again: Tyndall and Hirst, by employing instruments of great
precision, have demonstrated that the maximum of motion is not to
be found exactly in the centre, but that, according to the windings of
the valley through which the glacier flows, it moves sometimes to the
right of the centre, and sometimes to the left. Now, the progression
of a river exhibits all the characters we have just enumerated, and
the truth foreshadowed by Rendu has been confirmed in every
detail. The glacier is a “river of ice.”
The reader will naturally ask, How can a substance of such
apparent rigidity as ice obey, as it does obey, the same laws which
regulate the movement of fluids? I can understand, he may say, how
water flows in such and such a manner: it is a liquid, and its
molecules are deficient in the property of cohesion; but that so solid,
and firm, and unimpressible a substance as ice should be capable of
motion seems impossible. I can understand very easily that a mass
of ice, when loosened or detached from its resting-place, will glide
downwards until arrested by some adequate obstacle; but this is not
the kind of motion you are describing. According to your
explanations, every constituent portion of the glacier moves, and the
central faster than the lateral, and the surface faster than the base.
These objections were advanced by men of science when the
motion of glaciers was first put forward as a theory; and the answer
given by Scheuchzer was, that a glacier might be compared, in the
summer season, to a sponge saturated with water, which, when
afterwards congealed by the cold temperature of autumn and winter,
expanded, and produced a dilatation of the mass in every direction.
Then, as it could not recede, as it could not reascend its valley-
slope, the augmentation of size would necessarily take place in its
lower portion.
It is unnecessary for us to explain why this answer was
unsatisfactory. Subsequent observations, however, proved its
impossibility, and Professor Forbes then put forward his ideas of the
viscous character of ice. But these, too, did not meet the conditions
of the phenomenon; and the view now adopted is that of Professor
Tyndall, who has shown that it is the result of the regelation we have
already described.
Professor Forbes enunciated his theory in words to the following
effect: “A glacier is an imperfect fluid or viscous body, which is urged
down slopes of certain inclination by the natural pressure of its
parts.” But we know the exceeding brittleness of ice, and how is
viscosity compatible with brittleness? We know, too, that crevasses
and fissures will suddenly form on a glacier, like the cracks on a
pane of glass. But if ice were viscous, and could expand, dilate, or
stretch as viscous substances do, these crevasses would be
impossible. They would gradually close up, like an indent in a mass
of jelly. And yet it cannot be denied that a glacier does move like a
viscous body; the centre flowing past the sides, the top flowing over
the bottom, while the motion through a curved valley corresponds to
fluid motion. How are we to reconcile these apparently conflicting
circumstances?
By Professor Tyndall’s regelation theory, which is founded on a
fact already mentioned; namely, that when two pieces of thawing ice
are brought in contact, they freeze together.
This fact, and its application irrespective of the cause of
regelation, may be thus illustrated: “Saw two slabs from a block of
ice, and bring their flat surfaces into contact; they immediately freeze
together. Two plates of ice, laid one upon the other, with flannel
round them overnight, are sometimes so firmly frozen in the morning
that they will rather break elsewhere than along their surface of
junction. If you enter one of the dripping ice-caves of Switzerland,
you have only to press for a moment a slab of ice against the roof of
the cave to cause it to freeze there and stick to the roof.
“Place a number of fragments of ice in a basin of water, and
cause them to touch each other; they freeze together where they
touch. You can form a chain of such fragments; and then, by taking
hold of one end of the chain, you can draw the whole series after it.
Chains of icebergs are sometimes formed in this way in the Arctic
seas.”
From these observations we deduce the following result:—Snow
consists of small particles of ice. Now, if by pressure we squeeze out
the air entangled in thawing snow, and bring the little ice-granules
into close contact, they may be expected, as they do, to freeze
together; and should the expulsion of the air be complete, the
squeezed snow will assume the appearance of compact ice.
It is in this way that the consolidation of the snows takes place in
the Arctic as in the higher Alpine regions. The deeper layers of the
névé are converted into more or less perfect ice by the pressure of
the superjacent layers; and further, they are made to assume the
shape of the valley which they fill, by the slow and continuous
pressure of its sides.
In glaciers, as Professor Tyndall points out, we have ample
illustrations of rude fracture and regelation; as, for example, in the
opening and closing of crevasses. The glacier is broken on the
cascades, and mended at their bases. When two branch glaciers lay
their sides together, the regelation is so firm that they begin
immediately to flow in the trunk glacier as in a single stream. The
medial moraine gives no indication by its slowness of motion that it is
derived from the sluggish ice of the sides of the branch glaciers.
We may sum up the regelation theory in few words. The ice of
glaciers changes its form and retains its continuity under pressure
which keeps its particles together. But when subjected to tension,
sooner than stretch, it breaks, and behaves no longer as a viscous
body.
These are Professor Tyndall’s words, and the fact which they
embody it would be difficult to set forth more clearly or more
concisely.

A POLAR GLACIER.
Having said thus much of the structure, causes, characteristics,
and movement of glaciers, we proceed to consider some of the more
remarkable of those which are situated in the Arctic World.
The glaciers of the Polar Regions do not differ in structure or
mode of formation from those of other countries. Yet they possess
some peculiar features, and to a superficial observer might seem
independent of the physical laws we have attempted to explain. That
this is not the case has been shown by Charles Martins, who
carefully studied the glaciers of Spitzbergen on the occasion of the
exploring voyage of the Recherche to that island, and has
demonstrated that their differences are but a particular case of the
general phenomenon.
As special characters he points out, first, the rarity of needles and
prisms of ice, which he attributes to the slight inclination and the
uniformity of the slopes, as well as to the diminution of the solar
heat, which, even in the long summer days, does not melt the
surface. There are no rills or streams capable of hollowing out
crevasses and moulding protuberances or projections. But
transversal crevasses produced by the movement of the glaciers are
numerous, and these are often very wide and very deep.

GLACIER, ENGLISH BAY, SPITZBERGEN.


In the terminal escarpment, which melts in proportion as it
plunges into the sea, immense caverns are sometimes seen;
caverns so immense that the azure-gleaming grottoes of the
Arveiron and Grindelwald, so much admired by European travellers,
are but miniatures. “One day,” says Charles Martins, “after having
ascertained the temperature of the sea off the great glacier of Bell
Sound, I proposed to the sailors who accompanied me to carry our
boat into its cavern. I explained to them the risk we should incur,
being unwilling to attempt anything without their consent. When our
boat had crossed the threshold, we found ourselves in an immense
Gothic cathedral; long conical-pointed cylinders of ice descended
from the roof; the recesses seemed so many chapels opening out of
the principal nave; broad fissures divided the walls, and the open
intervals, like arches, sprang towards the summits; azure gleams
played over the icy surface, and were reflected in the water. The
sailors, like myself, were dumb with admiration. But a too prolonged
contemplation would have been dangerous; we soon regained the
narrow opening through which we had penetrated into this winter
temple, and, returning on board our vessel, preserved a discreet
silence respecting an escapade which might have been justly
blamed. In the evening, we saw from the shore our cathedral of the
morning slowly bend forwards, detach itself from the parent glacier,
crash into the waves, and reappear in a thousand blocks and
fragments of ice, which the retiring tide carried slowly out to sea.”
The Spitzbergen glaciers do not exhibit those numerous
moraines which are observed on the majority of those of
Switzerland.
The mountains, not being very lofty, are buried, as it were, under
their burden of glaciers, instead of preponderating over them, and
seem with difficulty to lift their peaks out of the mass of ice and snow
surrounding them. Consequently, there are no considerable landslips
or falls of earth and stone, which, accumulating along the borders of
the glaciers, might form moraines. Martins is of opinion that the
Spitzbergen glaciers correspond to the upper part of the glaciers of
Switzerland; to so much, that is to say, as lies above the perpetual
snow-line.
Now, he says, the higher we ascend on an Alpine glacier, the
more do the lateral and medial moraines diminish in width and form,
until they taper away and finally disappear under the high névés of
the amphitheatres from which the glacier issues, just as the
mountain torrents often take their rise in one or in several lakes
terraced one above the other.

GLACIER, BELL SOUND, SPITZBERGEN.


For all these reasons, he adds, the medial and lateral moraines
are scarcely conspicuous on the glaciers of Spitzbergen; a number
of stones and boulders may be seen along their sides, and
sometimes in their centre, but the ice is never hidden, as in the Alps,
under the mass of débris accumulated upon it. As for the terminal
moraines, they must be sought at the bottom of the sea, since the
terminal escarpment nearly always overhangs it. Hence, the blocks
of stone fall simultaneously with the blocks of ice, and form a
submarine frontal moraine, of which the two extremities are
occasionally visible upon the shore.
In a previous chapter we have alluded to the manner in which
icebergs are formed by the detachment from the seaward extremity
of the glacier of huge masses of ice, which the current carries out
into the open sea. To the description already given, we may here add
that which Charles Martins furnishes in his valuable and interesting
record of persevering scientific enterprise, “Du Spitzberg au Sahara”:
—In Spitzbergen, he says, the glacier, after a traject of more or less
considerable duration, reaches the sea. If the shore be rectilineal, it
advances no further; but, in the recess of a bay, where the shore is
curved, it continues its progression, supporting its bulk on the sides
of the bay, and advancing above the water, which it overhangs. This
is easily understood. In summer the sea-water at the bottom of the
bays is always at a temperature a little above 32°; on coming in
contact with this comparatively warm water the glacier melts, and, at
low tide, an interval is perceptible between the ice and the surface of
the water. The glacier being no longer supported, partially crumbles
and gives way; immense blocks detach themselves, fall into the sea,
disappear beneath the water, reappear revolving on their own axes,
and oscillate for a few moments until they have taken up their
position of equilibrium. The blocks thus detached from the floating
masses, of all sizes and shapes, are called icebergs.

STEAMER “CHARGING” AN ICEBERG, UPERNAVIK, GREENLAND.


Our traveller records that twice a day, in Magdalena Bay and Bell
Sound, he was an eye-witness of this partial ruin of the extremity of
the glaciers. Their fall was accompanied by a noise like that of
thunder; the swollen sea rushed upon the shore in a succession of
gigantic waves; the gulf was covered with icebergs, which, caught in
the swirl and eddy, issued out of the bay, like immense fleets, to gain
the sea beyond, or were stranded here and there at points where the
water was shallow. The icebergs seen by M. Martins were not,
however, of any surprising magnitude; he estimates their average
height at thirteen to sixteen feet. We have seen that those of Baffin
Bay are tenfold more considerable and imposing; but then, in that
bay the temperature of the sea is below 32°; the glacier does not
melt when it enters the water; it sinks to the bottom of the sea; and
the portions detached from it are all of greater height than even the
submerged part of the icebergs which drift to and fro in the bays and
gulfs of Spitzbergen.

We may follow up this description with some observations by


Lieutenant Bellot, the chivalrous young Frenchman who perished in
one of the expeditions despatched in search of Sir John Franklin and
his companions. He is speaking of the masses of ice his ship
encountered soon after doubling Cape Farewell, the south point of
Greenland, and he remarks, that as Baffin Bay narrows towards the
south, the icebergs, first set in motion higher up the bay by the
northern gales, necessarily tend to accumulate in the gorge thus
formed, and so to impede and block up Davis Strait, even when the
higher waters are quite free. It is only through a series of alternate
movements of advance and recession that the bergs finally pass
beyond the barrier, and float out into the Atlantic, to undergo a slow
process of dissolution.
The mobility of the bergs, though necessary to navigation, forms
at the same time its peculiar danger, since a vessel is often placed
between the shore and the colossal masses driven forward by the
wind, or between these and the solid ice which as yet has not broken
up. It is useless to dwell upon the immense force possessed by
masses which are frequently several square leagues in extent, and
which, once in movement, cannot be stayed by any human
resistance. A sailing-vessel finds herself placed in conditions all the
more unfavourable, because the winds blow from the very direction
which she is bound to take in order to open up a way through the
floes. Now, if the gale is violent, it is perilous indeed to push forward
in the midst of a labyrinth of bergs, which form so many floating
rocks; if a calm prevails, a ship can move forward only by laborious
hauling or towed by the boats. The application of the screw-propeller
to steam-ships has given to them a great superiority, because they
are not liable to any accident to paddle-wheels, exposed as such
must be to collision with the floating ice. It is recorded that, on one
occasion, a screw-steamer, near Upernavik, on the coast of
Greenland, actually charged an iceberg, and drove right through it,
as a railway-engine might crash through a fence or hurdle. Of
course, the berg was of no great elevation; but its solid mass yielded
to the immense force of the steamship, and split into large
fragments.
In the convulsions caused by furious tempests, which are far from
being so rare within the Arctic Circle as is popularly supposed, the
shape of the bergs becomes very irregular, and the configuration of
the ice-fields is constantly undergoing modification. Hence it often
happens that the voyager sees before him an open basin of water of
greater or less extent, from which he is separated only by a narrow
strip of ice. In such a case he endeavours to effect an opening,
either by driving his ship at full speed against the weakest part of the
ice, or with the help of immense saws, twenty feet in length, which
are worked with a rope and pulley placed at the top of a triangle
formed of long poles; or, finally, by exploding a mine. When the ice is
not very solid, the ship is forced into the opening, against the sides
of which it acts like a wedge. It will sometimes occur, in the course of
the operation, that the ice-fields, set in motion by the wind or the
currents, close in together, after having treacherously separated for a
moment, and the vessel is then subjected to a dangerous pressure.
Unhappy the mariner who does not foresee or sufficiently note the
warning signs of this accident, which is almost always accompanied
by fatal consequences. The ice, which nothing can check, passing
underneath the ship, capsizes it,—or, if it resists, crushes it.

We have alluded to the colossal bergs of Baffin Bay. These are


thrown off from the northern glaciers, and particularly from the
enormous ice-river named after Humboldt, which cumbers the
declivities of the Greenland Alps, beyond the 79th parallel. It has
been a frequent source of surprise to navigators that these mighty
masses should float in a contrary direction to that of the ice-fields
which descend with the Polar current towards the Atlantic. They
reascend with such rapidity that they shatter the so-called “ice-foot,”
or belt of ice, still adhering to the shore. Captain Maury has collected
numerous observations on this important subject, and he quotes the
case of a ship which was being laboriously hauled against the
current, when an enormous floating mountain coming up from the
south steered against it, but fortunately did not come into collision
with it, and forging ahead, very quickly disappeared. How is such an
incident to be explained? By the existence of a submarine counter-
current, acting on the lower extremity of the submerged portion of
the berg, which, as we have stated, is always seven or eight times
larger than the bulk above the surface of the waves.
Our whalers, in their hazardous expeditions, often derive
assistance from these moving islands. They seek shelter under their
lee when sudden storms arise; for the huge bergs are scarcely
affected by the most violent gales. They find their shelter valuable
also during certain operations of the fishery for which rest and quiet
are necessary. Yet it is not absolutely exempt from danger. The
seeming friend may prove to be a concealed foe. The iceberg may
collapse, or be capsized; or formidable fragments, loosened from
their sides or summits, may topple headlong and threaten to
overwhelm the ship beneath: but as on these and other accidents we
have already dwelt at length, we refrain from wearying our readers
with a twice-told tale. The repetition in which, to some extent, we
have indulged, was needful, in order to show the reader in what way

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