Final Word

Much needs to be done to promote among the American People a higher level of understanding and interest in world affairs. As American foreign policy making becomes more diffuseless centered in the executive branch of government -- achieving this objective will become more critical to the development of less reactive, more long- term policies. The NATO Expansion debate showed what could happen when there is no constituency supporting open and substantive debate as part of a foreign policy process -- the floor will inevitably be dominated by lobbyists with narrow interests.

The retrenchment on military intervention in Iraq demonstrates the significant impact public opinion can have on policy, and the dangerous tight-rope policy makers walk when they formulate policies without consulting the public, until a very late stage in the policy development process.

In all, there is an important role that an organization like the ICLTD can play in promoting educational initiatives that can reinforce the traditional foreign policy making process, and thereby enhance its responsiveness. I should reiterate here that the ICLTD has no intention of lobbying for or against any policy position, but to educate the public on how the process works, what the considerations and countervailing pressures are, and what national interests, if any, are at stake. It is important to democratize what was only recently a policy making process dominated by elites; it is also important, however, that democratization does not give way to chaos and instability. The ICLTD, true to the tradition of analysis that informs legal education, will generate through its programming a greater appreciation for how policy is made, on the theory that it, oftentimes, can prove to be more significant than even the policy itself.

Robert Ian Goodman, President