164. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Eagleburger) and the Chairman of the Policy Planning Council (Bosworth) to the Deputy Secretary of State (Dam)1
SUBJECT
- US Foreign Policy: The Year Ahead—and Beyond
We wanted to follow up promptly on Larry’s discussion with you last week on the need for a broader, more integrated approach to our foreign policy.2 We are convinced that all of us on the 7th Floor can benefit from looking beyond the immediate to our longer-term and more fundamental purposes. We have a few specific suggestions.
First, we will sharpen the focus on the longer-term dimensions of certain top priority issues, both to provide a sense of our longer-term strategy in core areas of our foreign policy interests and to illuminate policy choices over the next 6–18 months. These issues would include US-Soviet relations, the Mideast, Central America and perhaps southern Africa.
Second, we need to give greater attention to those major subjects which are not now of pressing urgency but which nonetheless are of great importance to US interests. In this regard, the Foreign Policy Directions exercise is continuing. After much exhortation we have received some papers from the bureaus. Frankly, they are of uneven quality. Steve will send those forward which deserve the attention of you and the Secretary while continuing to work the others.
[Page 661]In the meantime, S/P is itself working on some key issues which are of both immediate and longer-term importance to the institution of integrated, coherent global policy.
In particular:
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- Japan. How can we continue to strengthen US-Japanese international cooperation? How is Japan’s role likely to evolve in the 1980s and what can we do in the period ahead to influence Japanese evolution in constructive directions? What are the areas in which we should encourage/discourage greater Japanese cooperation and assertiveness? How should we manage the critical interaction between domestic and foreign policy aspects of our relations with Japan? Should we seek to pursue our interests with Japan primarily on a bilateral basis or should we seek to expand Japan’s participation in allied multilateral arrangements?
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- Western Europe. Where is Europe (and especially Germany) headed in the 1980s and what can we do to influence that direction? Clearly, we are dealing with a very different Western (and for that matter Eastern) Europe than that of the early 1970s, much less the 1950s or 60s. Europe’s real and relative weight in the world has declined over the last decade, pacifism is a serious problem, the European Community is divided and there are some worrisome political and economic trends. Moreover, continued European security dependence on the US nearly 40 years after WWII creates major psychological insecurities for some of our allies. Managing this aspect will be an especially crucial aspect of dealing with the German question.
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- North-South. The Secretary’s April speech won much praise as a thoughtful approach to the developing countries. The need now is to develop a systematic and concrete strategy for pursuing and implementing this strategy. Given the major economic, financial and security issues facing the LDCs, and our tight budgetary situation, this will be a real challenge. But it is long overdue.
S/P will be doing papers on these subjects in the period ahead. Each paper will draw from the longer-term perspective in providing suggestions concerning policy or strategy for the next six months. Steve will send these papers forward as they are completed and suggest meetings with you, the Secretary and Larry.
- Source: Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/P Files, Memoranda and Correspondence from the Director of the Policy Planning Staff to the Secretary and Other Seventh Floor Principals: Lot 89D149, S/P Chrons 7/1–15/83. Confidential; Nodis. Drafted by Kaplan. Hill initialed the top right-hand corner of the memorandum and wrote: “7/15.”↩
- No record of this conversation has been found.↩