Question

The united states learns from a variety of sources that another nation is planning to launch an attack against it and is punishing its own citizens who refuse to help. As president, what authority do you have, and what steps can you take to resolve this situation?
Authority of the president:

Tools of foreign policy:

Answer 1

Tools of Foreign policy, is no doubt the correct answer. In layman's terms, the president can use this authority to fulfill  goals of one sort or another. The president of the USA is not only the Commander in Chief but he is also the Chief Diplomat and uses his power to achieve diplomatic gains or negotiate with foreign countries over issues that are problematic. There are, I believe, three phases to Tools of Foreign Policy.

1. Diplomacy- negotiations with other countries. Usually this happens in privacy and once a deal is made it goes public however they might withhold certain info.  Example, the Iran deal. That happened behind closed doors. American people didn't know what was being negotiated and what was in the deal until afterwards. No one except the president fully knows what was agreed upon.

2. Foreign Aid- usually we see this in the forms of military or economic aid.

3. Military use- typically a stronger force is using military power to further weaken the opposing side and by doing that the stronger side can obtain what they want.

Hopefully this helped and good luck. 

Answer 2

Perhaps the most single valuable authority you have as president in this way is to issue an executive order, which can commit troops to a conflict for a limited about of time without Congressional approval. Tools of foreign policy would include sending in diplomats to try to negotiate peaceful terms.