Foreign Policy-Making Process Model

1. Invent your own model Current hierarchical structure of the US foreign policy decision making process is best defined by Hilsman’s model. My model aims to offer a different approach to Hilsman’s policy making process model. According to my model; the main actor in foreign policy decision making process is the National Security Council (NSC) instead of the President of the United States. By putting the NSC to the center of my model, I aim to balance the president’s seemingly broad power in the foreign policy making process and also prevent the destructive effects of internal conflicts and rivalries among bureaucratic institutions to influence foreign policy decision making process with The NSC’s centralized structure in my model. The President’s

Differently from the Classic model, the NSC members are elected by the public along with the president and the congress members except the military wing. This new structure of the NSC will prevent the possible unchallenged presidents in the foreign policy decision process and also will diminish the bureaucracy’s intervention to the NSC, reducing the NSC’s efficiency by carrying the internal bureaucratic conflicts into the NSC. The elected president and elected staff of the NSC will be more effective in foreign policy due to their decisions based on consensus without limited by bureaucratic conflicts or turning into an approval mechanism for a crusader type president’s foreign policy strategies. President’s role in my model is limited with its symbolic role over the US public and much more limited autonomy in foreign policy decision making process. In this new framework, the president’s broad role in foreign policy decision making process will be balanced and thus, the possibility of costly plans such as; Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan due to ambitions of crusader type presidents will be decreased. The people has an important role in my model, in contrast to Hilsman’s model. In the classic model, the people’s efficiency in foreign policy decision making process is limited with the election of the President and the members of Congress, they do not have the chance to determine the NSC’s civilian staff. Important civilian members of the NSC, such as; National Security Adviser and Secretary of State are not elected but appointed by the president. Congress has the responsibility to check the appointments but this causes a slow-down and allows bureaucratic rivalry to influence the president when he is re-appointing his/her NSC staff when the Congress disapproves. To prevent this administrative issue, I offer a new structure that, civil actors such as; Secretary of