Foreign Policy and War

Ronald Reagan Foreign Policy: Annotated Bibliography

Tucker, Robert W. 1989. "REAGAN'S FOREIGN POLICY." Foreign Affairs 68, no. 1: 1-27.

The author of this article maintains that Ronald Reagan assumed the Presidential role rebuking the 70s' arms control attempts. As a majority of Reagan's fellow politicians were highly suspicious of any arms control pacts with Russia, the general belief was that the newly sworn-in President shared the same view. The cold-war agreement with respect to foreign policy remains consistently idealized since Vietnam. Rarely did it function with the now-envisaged efficacy and smoothness. This re-formation's key feature was, evidently, the restitution of a prevalent public opinion that perceived the exercising of U.S. power without guilt or distrust, once again. Therefore, the chief Reagan foreign-policy legacy might well be that: the 40th President of the United States altered the inclination not to suffer for USA's global position into something of a firm resolve to refrain from doing so. If an agreement does currently exist, with regard to foreign policy, this should be considered its chief tenet. Primarily through his recurrent budget deficits, President Reagan plainly pulled out of the limitations earlier governing U.S. security policy. By doing so, Reagan dispensed with the accepted realism, at least, which marked the previous compromises. Instead, he put public demands, to only keep and not pay. Reagan's obstinate refusal (or probably his incapacity) to deal with the public using the plain truths revolving around America's position has been considered the most disastrous aspect of his Presidency, in connection with foreign policy.

LARISON, DANIEL. 2013. "Reagan, Hawk or Dove? (cover story)." American Conservative 12, no. 3: 12.

According to this article, the misuse and use of President Reagan's record has had a great influence on foreign policy arguments in the past twenty-five years. The example of Reagan is taken for supporting all actions ranging from the nation's Iraqi withdrawal and Iranian engagement to the "freedom agenda" of President Bush and the mobilization of Syrian and Libyan insurgents. The resolution to deploy American soldiers to Lebanon following the Israeli invasion of 1982 and the subsequent resolve to extricate them following the Beirut Marine barracks bombardment of 1983 count among the most disputed episodes from Reagan's presidency. The way diverse right factions view the former President's policy with respect to Lebanon reveals fault lines distinctly separating Noninterventionists from self-proclaimed Realists. At best, the foreign policy of the Reagan administration was a reaction to modern issues and realities, most of which do not exist any longer. Commending the ex-President for his Cold-War victory is another way his legacy is widely abused, having a negative impact on the way conservatives perceive foreign policy as well as America's proper global role.

Brenes, Michael. 2015. "Making Foreign Policy at the Grassroots: Cold War Politics and the 1976 Republican Primary." Journal of Policy History 27, no. 1: 93-117.

Citizens' local response to the 1975 Helsinki Accords, the Panama Canal pact, and other superpower agreements led to a motivated and active resistance against continued U.S.-Soviet negotiations, claims Brenes, in the above paper. However, mobilization against global detente events did not suffice, by itself, in undoing the national consensus on American foreign policy. The agreement's effect on Americans' livelihoods also influenced the nation's conduct locally as well as overseas. The link between domestic politics and international affairs caused Cold-War community inhabitants to lay the blame on detente for defense budget cuts as well as resultant losses of employment. Sunbelt cities which relied on Cold-War-era economy for economic development and employment believed the detente was a threat to their routine interests. They sought political candidates like Reagan during the seventies, for ensuring correction of the perceived shortfalls in U.S. defense policy. Thus, reliance of the public on the state of America's national security further undermined the soundness of reconciliation with communists and the corresponding decrease of the U.S.'s military arsenal. These events, combined, caused more American citizens to agree to a hard-line defense stance following the failure of detente in creating tangible growth in their life.

Podhoretx, Norman. 1985. "THE REAGAN ROAD TO DETENTE." Foreign Affairs 63, no. 3: 447.

The above article states that, President Reagan strove to develop and promote U.S. nationalism's countervailing spirit (also known as "new patriotism") whose foremost political outcome was his ascent to the President's post. He reasserted President Carter's commitment to stop the Soviet Union from entering and positioning itself in the Persian Gulf region. The Reagan administration also pronounced that America would not stand any additional expansion of communism within the Central American region, requesting the Soviet privately, and the Nicaraguans and Cubans openly, to inhibit arms flow to El Salvador's Marxist-dominated guerrilla groups. Lastly, Reagan's active opposition to communism was forced to capitulate in one more area, namely, its relations with the People's Republic of China. But in this case, the pressures revolved entirely around geopolitics; commerce had hardly any role to play in this area.

Gelb, Leslie H., and Anthony Lake. 1985. "FOUR MORE YEARS: DIPLOMACY RESTORED?" Foreign Affairs 63, no. 3: 465.

Reagan's ideology, as described by him in 1980-81, signified a drastic deviation from the earlier decade's foreign policies, according to the authors of this article. Presidents Carter, Ford, and Nixon had constantly, although in their own unique ways, carried out foreign policies adapted to the evolving global climate. They all practiced active diplomacy for offsetting the international power diffusion which became so apparent by the latter part of the 60s. President Reagan reversed their logic: U.S. policies ought not to adapt to the rest of the world; rather, a powerful and re-assertive United States could ensure the rest of the world adjusted to it. Reagan portrayed an image of a world that was more dangerous as well as, perhaps, much simpler to mold to America's interests as well as in the American image. Furthermore, Lake and Gelb (1985) assert that America's new military strength also meant to dissuade Russia from brewing trouble across the globe. America's citizens expressed a positive response to his depiction of the international scenario, during his election campaign as well as throughout the course of his first term as President. His rearmament-connected speeches and emphasis were approved of in America as well as among allied countries' leaders.

Smith, Michael. 1988. "The Reagan Administration's Foreign Policy, 1981-1985: Learning to Live with Uncertainty?" Political Studies 36, no. 1: 52-73.

The foreign policy adopted by Reagan's government between 1981 and 1985 offers a fascinating assessment of a crucial issue encountered by lawmakers in foreign countries: the necessity of coping with policy formation- and implementation- related uncertainties. This essay aims at examining the issue and coming up with suggestions on how lawmakers may respond to the issue. There are three steps to the argument: Firstly, a few sources and indicators of foreign policy uncertainty are identified. Next, a system is developed for locating lawmakers' reactions to uncertainty. Lastly, the system is applied to the Reagan foreign policy. The study arrives at two groups of conclusions: First, identifying ways by which lawmakers in foreign nations face and adapt to uncertainty is imperative. Secondly, identifying changing response patterns gives rise to additional questions with regard to "learning processes" demonstrated in lawmaking.

Jentleson, B.W. 1991. The Reagan Administration and Coercive Diplomacy: Restraining More Than Remaking Governments. Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 106, No. 1. 57-82

The author claims, in this paper, that a highly-prioritized task by Reagan and the foreign policy formulators of his government, upon assuming office in the year 1981, was: breaking the nation out of its Vietnam-influenced aversion to employing military force as a foreign policy tool. The Reagan administration's aim was not engaging in fresh wars; rather, they believed in a limited military force's efficacy as a key coercive diplomacy component, to bring down political pressure upon America's foes. Two major arguments are made by Jentleson in the above essay. Firstly, Reagan's record with regard to coercive diplomacy's failure and success reveals that it was a much more efficient approach in enforcing foreign policy restraints. Secondly, this differentiated coercive-diplomacy efficiency pattern must be accounted for, broadly as well as specific to Reagan's regime, using three series of restraints varying with two policy goals: military alternative usability; the force of international legitimacy claims; and how far local political opposition exists within the nation.

Bosch, Adriana. 2000. Reagan: An American Story, New York: TV Books.

On the basis of the unparalleled familial and internal political access accorded to the companion documentary American Experience's producers, Bosch traces the ex-President's life, right from his childhood days in the Midwest, to his stint with Hollywood, to retirement. She looks closely at the source of Reagan's determination, his getting used to the on-screen and political 'hero' role, and the tensions between his strong nuclear-weapon abolitionist and anti-communist standpoints. Ostensibly a simple person, Reagan's opponents constantly underestimated him. He surpassed them all one at a time. Ron Reagan, his son, claims in one of the interviews cited in this book that nobody was prepared for the strength of charm. Throughout the book, one will get to learn about the nation's 40th President through people who were closest to him.

Menges, C. C. 1989. Inside the National Security Council: the true story of the making and unmaking of Reagan's foreign policy. Touchstone.

This book provides a fascinating look at the National Security Council during the Reagan administration. The author examines the political in-fighting as well as Reagan's foreign policy convolutions. The topics examines include policy towards counterterrorism, Central America, and Angola. The author lays emphasis on the bureaucratic intrigues he observed being an official at the time and described specifics that are a subculture of manipulation and deception that went beyond the normal completion and viewpoint difference between individuals and agencies.

Rielly, J. E. (Ed.). 1987. American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1987. Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

In this fourth survey, in a series of surveys by Chicago council of foreign relations since 1974, the aim is to establish attitudes on major issues on international relations. The survey results from this 1987 survey concluded that the news as a result of the relations between America and other countries based on Reagan's foreign policy rank second in the interests of the public, after local events, having climbed from third position to overtake national news.

Carleton, D., & Stohl, M. 1985. The foreign policy of human rights: Rhetoric and reality from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan. Human Rights Quarterly, 7(2), 205-229.

This paper examines the enunciated rationale and principles for the Reagan human-rights foreign policy. The authors do this by comparing the Reagan policy with the Carter Policy through as reflected in their distribution of United States foreign aid. In particular, the paper examines whether the Reagan and Carter administrations adhered to congressional guidelines that give mandate to the link between the foreign aid operations of the United States and the human rights records of the recipient nation.