Milner, Tingley GS ’10 discuss partisan politics, foreign affairs

The famous phrase that “politics stops at the water’s edge,” meaning that Americans abandon partisan domestic conflicts when confronting international issues, is not really true, Wilson School professorHelen Milner said in a lecture on Tuesday.

Milner and Dustin Tingley GS ’10, a professor of government at Harvard, were discussing their recent book, “Sailing the Water’s Edge: The Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy.” Barton Gellman ’82, visiting professional specialist at the Wilson School and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, moderated the discussion.

Milner, who is also thedirector of the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance,explained that most books on foreign policy either focus on the international dimensions or zero in on how different presidents’ personalities affect their decision-making. She explained that “Sailing the Water’s Edge” takes the middle ground between these two ideas and incorporates the discussion on how U.S. leaders operate within longstanding, stable political institutions.

The book takes a stance against an argument of two presidencies, she said, where an “argument of two presidencies” supposes that there is one kind of presidency that concentrates on domestic issues and cooperation between the President and other branches of government, as well as the public, and another kind of presidency that focuses on how the President can make foreign policy independently without such interventions.

“We just looked at this and said, you know, that just isn’t true in a lot of foreign policy areas,” Milner said.

Tingley gave an example of how domestic issues and different government branches help shape international policy by explaining how the U.S. used textiles in an effort to encourage trade with Pakistan. He noted that the constituents of a few states where textiles were an important commodity disapproved of the efforts, leading Congress to substitute trade policy with military strategies.

Climate change is another factor that impacts the relationship between foreign policy and domestic governance, he said.

“The U.S. military is really scared of climate change,” Tingley said, noting that drastic changes to the Earth’s climate would make military operations more expensive. “Climate change is a security issue, and so it’ll be interesting in some senses to see how some of the rhetoric plays out here.”

Both Milner and Tingley added, however, that there have been stellar, historical moments in which foreign policy was most effective.

“I’ve been kind of inspired by the handling of both Ukraine and Myanmar,” Tingley said, referring to the efficient use of sanctions and aid support in these two countries.

Milner also cited the international policymaking in effect after World War II, saying that strategies such as the Marshall Plan, movements to stabilize the global economy and international alliances such as NATO were a powerful combination in saving Western Europe from the rise of Communism.

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A Q&A followed the lecture, with topics ranging from the Iran nuclear deal, an argument for the expansion of the military and urgency in forwarding the ideas discussed in the book to elected officials.

The lecture, entitled, “Sailing the Water's Edge: The Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy,” took place in Robertson Hall at 4:30 p.m.