Tensions in American foreign policy between President and Congress

The end of the East-West conflict forced the USA to reformulate its goals o ft foreign policy. Two divergent views are in conflict in this matter. On t he one hand the USA is expected to use its foreign policy to play a part in shaping the new world order; on the other it is felt that internal - espec ially economic and social - concerns should determine foreign policy and th e USA should focus its international involvement on a few Selected areas of economic and strategic interest. This argument, which is more than academi c, is carried on principally between Congress and the administration, and h as already had not inconsiderable effects. In the following article Georg S child, lecturer in the Political Sciences Seminar at Bonn University and a proven expert on American politics, describes. the chief proponents of the different views, how significant they are in determining the changes in Ame rican foreign policy and in what way they seek or have sought to influence its course. Actions by the USA which have not always been understood are ma de clearer, and future decisions by what is at present the only remaining s uperpower will be easier to predict.