The United States and the World

Abstract

Most experts on America's dealings with other nations would agree that we have a unique, complicated, energy-depleting system of law for allocating authority to govern our official conduct offshore. The U.S. state and federal constitutions incorporate some version of separation of powers with checks and balances, requiring the inter related independence of 3 branches of government. At the constitutional level, this system allocates action and commit ment ability related to foreign affairs between the Execu tive and Legislative branches, but so far the courts have not ventured far into resolution of conflicts between them. The Constitution says the president has executive power and Congress does not have express, general power to legislate or manage in foreign affairs. It does not resolve the question of who is master in foreign policy. A number of problem cases influencing the shaping of our external relations are military policy, control of expenditures, and arms control and disarmament. The possibility of a transnational government, citizen participation in policy decisions, America's good faith in international agreements, and the constitutional revision for foreign affairs are also important questions concerning America and the world. And in this complex it may be that for the first time in the nation's history the people have to live with unrelieved separation of powers, while Congress increasingly asserts a will to participate in foreign affairs.