In The Reagan Moment , the ideas, events, strategies,
trends, and movements that shaped the 1980s are revealed to have
had lasting effects on international relations: The United States
went from a ...creditor to a debtor nation; democracy crested in East
Asia and returned to Latin America; the People's Republic of China
moved to privatize, decentralize, and open its economy; Osama bin
Laden founded Al Qaeda; and relations between Washington and Moscow
thawed en route to the Soviet Union's dissolution.
The Reagan Moment places US foreign relations into
global context by examining the economic, international, and
ideational relationships that bound Washington to the wider world.
Editors Jonathan R. Hunt and Simon Miles bring together a cohort of
scholars with fresh insights from untapped and declassified global
sources to recast Reagan's pivotal years in power.
Contributors: Seth Anziska, James Cameron, Elizabeth Charles,
Susan Colbourn, Michael De Groot, Stephanie Freeman, Christopher
Fuller, Flavia Gasbarri, Mathias Haeussler, William Inboden, Mark
Atwood Lawrence, Elisabeth Mariko Leake, Melvyn P. Leffler, Evan D.
McCormick, Jennifer Miller, David Painter, Robert Rakove, William
Michael Schmidli, Sarah Snyder, Lauren Frances Turek, James
Wilson
A unique insight into one of the most controversial political relationships in recent historyThe Falklands War, the US invasion of Grenada, the Anglo-Guatemalan dispute over Belize and the US ...involvement in Nicaragua – in the 1980s, these crises threatened to overwhelm a renewal in US–UK relations. Sally-Ann Treharne vividly portrays the role of personal diplomacy between US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in overcoming obstacles to Anglo–American relations emanating from the turbulent Latin American region in the final years of the Cold War. Drawing on recently declassified documents and elite interviews with key protagonists that reveal candid recollections, she highlights the pivotal moments in Reagan and Thatcher's shared history from a new vantage point.
From his early work as a lawyer on the Warren Commission
investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to his
days as Philadelphia's district attorney to his thirty-year career
as a ...United States Senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen Spector found
himself consistently in the middle of major historical events.
During his five terms as senator, Spector met with the likes of
Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Cuban
Prime Minister Fidel Castro and made significant contributions
during the fallout of both the Iran-Contra scandal and the Clinton
impeachment. His work had a profound influence on the configuration
of the United States Supreme Court, the criminal justice system,
LGBTQ rights, and stem cell research. Photographs from Specter's
personal collection highlight many of these key moments, revealing
the rich narrative not only of one man's political career, but how
it helped shape a nation. While it will probably be long debated
whether Specter's complex and controversial political legacy merits
mainly praise or criticism, Arlen Specter sheds new light
on the life of a man who fought to make a difference.
This book presents a provocative perspective on the impact of the Reagan administration. Many political commentators, both liberal and conservative, argue that the 1980s was a period of fundamental ...conservative change. Some of them believe the changes have been so important that the 1980s should be seen as a watershed period in American political history as significant as the 1930s. Schwab denies this thesis and points out that politics and policy did not fundamentally change in a conservative direction. Instead, he demonstrates how policy developments and the political system actually moved in the opposite direction.
In the realm of public opinion, Schwab points out that sentiment tends to shift toward the left rather than the right. Support for social and environmental programs remained high and even increased during the Reagan era, whereas support for defense programs dropped to a near-record low. Instead of a New Right conservative shift in public opinion on social issues, Americans became more liberal on women's rights, minority rights, and sexual behavior issues.
Schwab's critique extends as well to Reagan's political success and popularity. Rather than being one of the most successful presidents in leading Congress, he was one of the least successful. His conservative ideology lessened support for him among many voters and congressional liberals gained more voter support during the 1980s' elections than conservatives.
In The Triumph of Improvisation, James Graham Wilson takes a long view of the end of the Cold War, from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 to Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. ...Drawing on deep archival research and recently declassified papers, Wilson argues that adaptation, improvisation, and engagement by individuals in positions of power ended the specter of a nuclear holocaust. Amid ambivalence and uncertainty, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, George Shultz, George H. W. Bush, and a host of other actors engaged with adversaries and adapted to a rapidly changing international environment and information age in which global capitalism recovered as command economies failed.
Eschewing the notion of a coherent grand strategy to end the Cold War, Wilson paints a vivid portrait of how leaders made choices; some made poor choices while others reacted prudently, imaginatively, and courageously to events they did not foresee. A book about the burdens of responsibility, the obstacles of domestic politics, and the human qualities of leadership, The Triumph of Improvisation concludes with a chapter describing how George H. W. Bush oversaw the construction of a new configuration of power after the fall of the Berlin Wall, one that resolved the fundamental components of the Cold War on Washington's terms.
This book represents the first comprehensive overview of the US-Iraqi relationship since 1979 and the first attempt to place the 2003 American invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq in that wider ...historical context.Using a modified version of World Systems Theory, the book places American policy toward Iraq at the centre of a number of dynamics, including America's dominant role in managing the world capitalist system, the fundamental importance of Persian Gulf oil to that system, and long-term change in the American political system.It argues that American policy towards Iraq since 1979 has been shaped above all by the importance of Persian Gulf oil to the world economy and the consequent need to restore America's position as regional hegemon and guarantor of the global oil supply, which had been destabilized by the Iranian revolution.It also emphasizes the role of American domestic politics and above all the 'conservative ascendancy' which brought George W. Bush to the presidency, as a critical factor in explaining the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Key Features*Provides a comprehensive analysis of US-Iraqi relations from 1979*Demonstrates that the second Iraq War is a result of a longer historical process and not just the product of 9/11 and the War on Terror*Deepens understanding of the underlying factors of US policy towards the Persian Gulf, and its oil*Uses World Systems Theory to analyse US foreign policy
"An empire of ideals" Garrison, Justin D
2013., 2013, 20130305, 2013-03-05, Letnik:
5
eBook
"Justin D. Garrison provides an original and groundbreaking analysis of Ronald Reagan's imagination as it was expressed mainly in his presidential speeches. He argues that the predominant strain of ...Reagan's imagination is "chimeric," that is, imbued with a high degree of optimism, romantic dreaminess, naivete, and illusion. Reagan spoke often about religion, democracy, freedom, conservatism, progress, America's role in the world, the American people, the American Founding, and peace. These are for him important symbols, which together express his general vision of politics and human existence. These symbols have to be analyzed in depth in order to understand who Reagan really was and what he represented to his admirers. The book concludes that Reagan's vision contains many dubious elements that present dangers for practical politics and claims that the popularity of Reagan's imagination among Americans suggests a problematic self-understanding. Surpassing, existing works on Reagan's ideas and speeches, this book systematically explains the general quality and major components of Reagan's vision, and it draws upon political theory, aesthetics, and American political thought to analyze his imagination"--
Is the United States seriously overcommitted in its worldwide relationships? Donald Nuechterlein examines the foreign policy priorities of the United States as it enters the latter half of the 1980s ...and contemplates its future international role; he argues that whether the United States remains a superpower into the twenty-first century depends on how it decides its international priorities in this decade and then marshals its resources to defend and enhance them.
The hard decisions needed to establish priorities among United States military and economic commitments abroad must be made if the United States is to remain financially strong and emotionally committed to an international rather than an isolationist foreign policy. In this book the author uses a conceptual framework he developed earlier to assess the nature and intensity of specific challenges to United States national interests.
Nuechterlein analyzes seven geographical areas of the world in terms of the United States historical interests and suggests the future degree of interest that should be assigned to them. He also classifies thirty countries, in various parts of the world, in terms of their national interest value to the United States in the coming decade. Finally, he assesses the foreign policies of the Reagan administration in light of national interest priorities.
America Overcommittedwill be essential reading for makers of American foreign and national security policy, for journalists reporting on international affairs, for scholars seeking better ways to analyze United States foreign policy objectives, and for informed citizens who ask why the United States is involved militarily in all parts of the world. America Overcommitted is thus a guide to better decision making in foreign affairs in this critical decade.
The war on terror did not start after 9/11, rather its origins must be traced back much further to the Reagan administration and the 1980s. Utilizing recently declassified archival resources, Toaldo ...offers an in-depth analysis of how ideas and threat perceptions were shaped both by traditional US policy in the Middle East during the Cold War and by the cooperation with the Israeli right. The book examines two case studies of American intervention in the region and of its reactions to terrorism: Lebanon between 1982 and 1984 and Libya from 1981 to 1986. The first encounter with Hizbullah and the 'pre-emptive strike' against Qadhafi are analyzed in light of the recently released sources.
Tracing foreign policy thinking developed by Reagan officials and Israeli intellectuals and leaders, the work demonstrates the significant impact this thinking had on US foreign policy after 9-11: ideas such as pre-emptive strikes, regime change and state-sponsorship were elaborated in the Reagan years and would later influence Bush's Global War on Terror. The book will be of great interest to scholars of US Foreign Policy, Middle East studies and American history.
Over the past quarter century, American liberals and conservatives alike have invoked memories of the 1960s to define their respective ideological positions and to influence voters. Liberals recall ...the positive associations of what might be called the “good Sixties”—the “Camelot” years of JFK, the early civil rights movement, and the dreams of the Great Society—while conservatives conjure images of the “bad Sixties”—a time of urban riots, antiwar protests, and countercultural revolt. In Framing the Sixties, Bernard von Bothmer examines this battle over the collective memory of the decade primarily through the lens of presidential politics. He shows how four presidents—Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush—each sought to advance his political agenda by consciously shaping public understanding of the meaning of “the Sixties.” He compares not only the way that each depicted the decade as a whole, but also their commentary on a set of specific topics: the presidency of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” initiatives, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. In addition to analyzing the pronouncements of the presidents themselves, von Bothmer draws on interviews he conducted with more than one hundred and twenty cabinet members, speechwriters, advisers, strategists, historians, journalists, and activists from across the political spectrum—from Julian Bond, Daniel Ellsberg, Todd Gitlin, and Arthur Schlesinger to James Baker, Robert Bork, Phyllis Schlafly, and Paul Weyrich. It is no secret that the upheavals of the 1960s opened fissures within American society that have continued to affect the nation’s politics and to intensify its socalled culture wars. What this book documents is the extent to which political leaders, left and right, consciously exploited those divisions by “framing” the memory of that turbulent decade to serve their own partisan interests.
