Student Seminar
This final seminar provides an opportunity to share insights about the process.
In light of the trends and challenges to U.S. national security, the Constitution's relevance and effectiveness to respond to the national agenda is a valid concern. Perhaps there should be clarification regarding its meaning and specific applicability to such matters as the use of instruments of statecraft, particularly the use of force, or clearer ground rules on treaty ratification or nominee confirmation? Perhaps selective statutes and court decisions should be revisited.
The Framers, of course, made it difficult to amend the Constitution. It takes two-thirds of both Houses of Congress or a Convention called by the Legislators of two-thirds of the States to propose changes, which then require approval by Legislatures or Conventions in three-fourths of the States. That explains why there have been only seventeen additional modifications to the Constitution after the first ten Amendments were added in 1791.
Topic Objectives
- To review the themes of the course--the Constitutional system, and the inefficient, yet deliberate process of national security decision-making.
- To consider alternative forms of decision making.
- To propose areas that might be subject to change if the Constitution were rewritten.
- To consider the consequences of amending the Constitution to achieve policy changes.
- To obtain student reviews and suggestions concerning the course.
Questions for Consideration
- Is the current bureaucratic policymaking structure an unfortunate deviation from sound, logical, coherent policy formulation, or is it inevitable?
- Should there be another Constitutional Convention? If so, who should attend? Make a specific list of recommended attendees by category of profession, expertise, or other description. Use actual names where qualified. Determine how many delegates there should be, where they should meet and for how long. Devise rules of engagement for them to follow during deliberation. Decide which significant issues should be debated. List specific proposed amendments, focussing particularly on national security topics. Finally, record the vote on each proposed amendment.
- If there are no recommended changes, is the current process adequate to the challenges of the next century?
- What changes in the process might make for more coherent national security? How should they be implemented?
Required Readings
* Martin Diamond, The Founding of the Democratic Republic (Itasca, Illinois: F.E. Peacock Publishers, Inc., 1981), pp. 103-105, 147-151. (Reprint)
* Lloyd Cutler, "To Form a Government," Foreign Affairs (Fall 1980), pp. 126-43. (Reprint)
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