CHAPTER TEn • THE PREsidEnCy 229
Advice and Consent
Terms in the Constitution
describing the U.S.
Senate’s power to review
and approve treaties and
presidential appointments.
Chief Diplomat
The role of the president
in recognizing foreign
governments, making
treaties, and effecting
executive agreements.
Diplomatic
Recognition
The formal acknow l-
edgment of a foreign
government as legitimate.requiring that the president consult with Congress when sending American forces into
action. Once they are sent, the president must report to Congress within forty-eight hours.
Unless Congress approves the use of troops within sixty days or extends the sixty-day time
limit, the forces must be withdrawn.
In spite of the War Powers Resolution, the powers of the president as commander in
chief are more extensive today than they were in the past. These powers are linked closely
to the president’s powers as chief diplomat, or chief crafter of foreign policy.Chief diplomat
The Constitution gives the president the power to recognize foreign governments, to
make treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate, and to make special agree-
ments with other heads of state that do not require congressional approval. In addition,
the president nominates U.S. ambassadors to other countries. As chief diplomat, the
president dominates American foreign policy, a role that has been supported many times
by the Supreme Court.diplomatic Recognition. An important power of the president as chief diplomat is that
of diplomatic recognition, or the power to recognize—or refuse to recognize—foreign
governments as legitimate. In the role of ceremonial head of state, the president has
always received foreign diplomats. In modern times, the simple act of receiving a foreign
diplomat has been equivalent to accrediting the diplomat and officially recognizing his or
her government. Such recognition of the legitimacy of another country’s government is a
prerequisite to diplomatic relations or treaties between that country and the United States.
Deciding when to recognize a foreign power is not always simple. The United States,
for example, did not recognize the Soviet Union until 1933—sixteen years after the Russian
Revolution of 1917. It was only after all attempts to reverse the effects of that revolu-
tion—including military invasion of Russia and diplomatic isolation—had proved futile that
Franklin D. Roosevelt extended recognition to the Soviet government. In December 1978,
long after the Communist victory in China in
1949, President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
granted official recognition to the People’s
Republic of China.^6Proposal and Ratification of Treaties.
The president has the sole power to negotiate
treaties with other nations. These treaties must
be presented to the Senate. A two-thirds vote
in the Senate is required for approval, or rati-
fication. After ratification, the president can
approve the treaty as adopted by the Senate.
Approval poses a problem when the Senate
has added substantive amendments or res-
ervations to a treaty, particularly when such
changes may require reopening negotiationsPresident obama speaks at the Pentagon in January 2012.
He is flanked, left to right, by the Army’s top general, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the commandant of the Marine Corps. Obama
announced new priorities that will cut the Pentagon budget by hundreds
of billions of dollars over the next decade. How are top members of the
military likely to react to budget cuts? (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)- The Nixon administration first encouraged new
relations with the People’s Republic of China
by allowing a cultural exchange of table tennis
teams. Nixon subsequently traveled to China.
Social Media
in Politics
In no field is the president
more powerful, relative to
the rest of the government,
than in foreign policy.
If you have an interest
in that topic, consider
following Foreign Policy
magazine on Facebook.
Simply search on “foreign
policy.”Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.