Thomas P Thornton - The Challenge to U.S. Policy in the Third World: Global Responsibilities and Regional Devolution

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SAIS PAPERS IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The Challenge to U.S. Policy in the Third World

Global Responsibilities and Regional Devolution

Thomas Perry Thornton

WESTVIEW PRESS/BOULDER AND LONDON SCHOOL OF ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

NUMBER 10

SAIS PAPERS IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

The Challenge to U.S. Policy in the Third World

Global Responsibilities and Regional Devolution

Thomas Perry Thornton

First published 1986 by Westview Press, Inc.

Published 2019 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1986 by The Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thornton, Thomas Perry.
The challenge to U.S. policy in the Third World.
(SAIS papers in international affairs, no. 10)
Includes index.
1. Developing countriesForeign relationsUnited States. 2. United StatesForeign relationsDeveloping countries. 3. United StatesForeign relations 1945- . I. Title. II. Title: Challenge to US policy in the Third World. III. Series.
D888.U6T46 1986 327.730172'4 86-11097

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29066-5 (hbk)

THE JOHNS HOPKINS FOREIGN POLICY INSTITUTE

Harold Brown
Chairman

Simon Serfaty
Executive Director

Robert E. Osgood
Codirector Security Studies Program

Susan L. Crowley
Director Public Affairs

Nancy McCoy
Editorial Coordinator

Philip Geyelin
Editor-in-Residence

Michael Vlahos
Codrector Security Studies Program

Wilfrid Kohl
Director International Energy Program

George R. Packard
Dean, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute (FPI) was founded in 1980 and serves as the research center for the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. The FPI is a meeting place for SAIS faculty members and students as well as for government analysts, policymakers, diplomats, journalists, business leaders, and other specialists in international affairs. In addition to conducting research on various policy-related international issues, the fpi sponsors conferences, seminars, and roundtables.

The FPI'S research activities are often carried out in conjunction with SAIS'S regional and functional programs dealing with Latin America and the Caribbean Basin, American foreign policy, U.S.-Japan relations, Canada, Africa, Europe, security studies, international energy, and international economics.

FPI publications include the SAIS Review, a biannual journal of foreign affairs, which is edited by sais students; the SAIS Papers in International Affairs, a monograph series which is copublished with Westview Press in Boulder, Colorado; and the FPI Policy Briefs, a series of analyses of foreign-policy issues as they develop. For additional information regarding FPI publications, write to: FPI Publications Program, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, 1740 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR

In formulating policy toward the Third World, U.S. decisionmakers have been hampered by a superficial understanding of events in developing countries, by a tendency to deal with Third World problems in terms of global considerations, and by the role of the United States as a superpower with responsibility for helping to manage regional security affairs. In the past decade, however, a number of Third World states have become increasingly able to handle their own security requirements. Thomas Thornton argues that it is imperative for the United States to play a role in this process of devolution of security responsibility if the United States is to protect its own national security interests and maintain the global military-strategic balance. His review of five areasSouth Asia, Southeast Asia, the Gulf, Southern Africa, and Central America shows that there are various degrees of promise for resolution of regional problems by regional powers. Mr. Thornton points out that to assist in the development of regional responsibility, U.S. policy must balance the importance of global and regional considerations with a recognition of the capabilities of Third World countries themselves.

Thomas Perry Thornton is adjunct professor of Soviet and Asian studies at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. During the Carter administration he was in charge of North-South affairs on the staff of the National Security Council.

To Karin and to Tommy, Nalini, and Peter

CONTENTS

1. v
2. vi

Guide

MY PURPOSE IN THIS book is to demonstrate that there are some overall strategies that can be applied when determining U.S. policy toward the countries of the Third World. To be useful, this type of book must be directed to a diversity of readersall those who are concerned with the subject, whether policymakers, academic analysts, or members of the general public.

The subject matter and audience require a presentation with an extremely broad scope, embracing both globalist and regionalist strains of the ongoing policy debate. It has to deal with policy across the full range of countries in the Third World. This means passing over a lot of detail on the assumption that the reader is generally familiar with the subject matter. It also entails considerable generalization about an entitythe Third Worldthat is amorphous at best. Finally, only a few parts of the Third World can be examined in detail, and these not always in equal depth. The choice of audience dictates the manner of presentation. A work that is mainly analytical and presented in traditional scholarly form would not be read by the policymakers, who need it most, whereas one without an articulated theoretical underpinning would probably be of little use in providing the kind of constructive approach that I will be suggesting.

I make these points as an apologia rather than an apology, for effective policy presentation, no less than policymaking, must stay on the middle ground if it is to achieve the necessary broad base of understanding and support. This country's policy toward the Third World has unfortunately not received much understanding or support over any sustained period.

In I examine the implications of these changes and set forth a conceptual framework to help the reader understand the direction of change and put it in perspective.

deal with U.S. interests and policy choices regarding the Third World. Interests are no more immutable than are capabilities, and it is useful to attempt a net assessment, even if sketchy, of the interrelated sets of changes in our interests, attitudes, and capabilities, and in the capabilities of others. Several policy choices emerge from this calculation: The one I find most useful lies in the familiar middle grounda policy of purposeful devolution of responsibility for security maintenance from the superpowers to individual states and especially to groupings of states in several regions of the Third World. Although this policy certainly is not novel, it has become much more interesting in light of the changes that have taken place in the international environment and within the Third World itself.

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