scholarly journals The Effects of Electoral Concerns on Presidential Foreign Policy: The Case of Ronald Reagan

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher S. Randolph, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Minimal Impact ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
The Impact

Although previous scholarship indicates that foreign policy has only a minimal impact on voter behavior, contemporary research suggests voters do act upon their foreign policy preferences. Recognizing voters’ policy concerns, political leaders have frequently modified their foreign policy positions to mitigate electoral vulnerability. Ronald Reagan’s policies offer an example of such a shift. Reagan maintained hawkish positions toward Central America and the Soviet Union for most of his first term but, sensing public concern over such policies, adopted more conciliatory foreign policy positions, especially towards the Soviet Union, to reduce potential vulnerabilities in preparation for his 1984 reelection campaign. Notably, Reagan did not return to more aggressive policies following his reelection. Reagan’s foreign policy shift demonstrates the impact that public opinion and domestic politics may have on foreign relations.

Jazz as Democracy?? Dave Brubeck and Cold War Politics

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Crist
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Governmental Secrecy ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1958 tour on behalf of the U.S. State Department, part of the grand Cold War project of propagating American-style democracy in opposition to communism, did not advance in an orderly and self-evident manner. Rather it was an extremely contingent enterprise enacted through countless individual actions and statements by a motley assortment of bureaucrats and businessmen, and frequently teetered on the brink of chaos. The story of Brubeck's tour, including its evolution and impact, is complex and multifaceted, involving overlapping and conflicting agendas, governmental secrecy, high-minded idealism, and hard-nosed business. The narrative also raises issues of race and race relations in the context of the Cold War struggle against communism and brings into focus the increasing cultural prestige of jazz and other popular genres worldwide during the period when the ideological premises of the Cold War were being formulated. Thirty years later——in 1988, as the Cold War was waning——the Quartet performed in Moscow at the reciprocal state dinner hosted by President Ronald Reagan for General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev during their fourth summit meeting. The sequence of events leading up to this occasion, including the Quartet's long-anticipated tour of the Soviet Union during the previous year, reveals Brubeck to have been not only a talented musician but a canny entrepreneur as well. By the late 1980s the cultural and political landscape had shifted so dramatically as to be virtually unrecognizable to the Cold Warriors of the 1950s. By all accounts, Brubeck's tours in the 1950s and 1980s were among the most successful of their kind. Though Brubeck attributes their efficacy primarily to the power of an influential idea that came into its own toward the beginning of the Cold War——namely, jazz as democracy——the documentary record makes clear that the impact of his travels involved a multifarious nexus of other factors as well, including reputation, personality, and marketability.

Religious Freedom and the New Evangelical Foreign Policy Lobby

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-94
Author(s):  
Lauren Frances Turek
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spiritual Beliefs ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Wide Range

This chapter explores how evangelical internationalism developed into a focused vision for U.S. foreign relations that provided the foundation for political advocacy on a wide range of global issues by the late 1970s and early 1980s. It argues that a powerful evangelical foreign policy emerged in response to growing anxieties about developments in international relations. It also explains how evangelicals drew on their connections with coreligionists abroad and combined their spiritual beliefs with human rights language in order to build support among policymakers for the cause of international religious liberty. The chapter reflects the layered and multimodal nature of evangelical internationalist development and of the foreign policy challenges that evangelical activists confronted. It also reveals how evangelical leaders, missionaries, and interest groups drew on their political power and the international evangelical network to shape international relations and national policies in the United States, the Soviet Union, Guatemala, and South Africa.

When the Levee Breaks: The Impact of the Sino-Soviet Split and the Invasion of Czechoslovakia on Romanian-Soviet Relations, 1967–1970

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mircea Munteanu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International System ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Warsaw Pact ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Soviet Invasion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Evidence

Romania's position regarding the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 was the culmination of almost a decade of increasingly autonomous moves vis-à-vis Moscow. Based on new evidence from the Romanian archives, this article paints a more complete picture of Nicolae Ceauşescu's reaction to the invasion of Czechoslovakia, placing it in the context of the international system and especially the Sino-Soviet split. Following the invasion, Romania remained just as committed as before to the goal of ensuring its maneuverability on the world scene, especially with regard to sovereignty and independence. Although Romanian leaders tried not to provoke the Soviet Union outright, they did not back down on important issues concerning Sino-Romanian relations and did not embrace Moscow's call for a common Warsaw Pact foreign policy. Romania did agree to certain compromises, but only because Ceauşescu believed that Romania would remain largely unaffected by them.

No War Without Dictatorship, No Peace Without Democracy: Foreign Policy as Domestic Politics

1985 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 176-191
Author(s):  
Aaron Wildavsky
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Basis ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
The Government

I wish to consider the possibility that a good part of the opposition to the main lines of American foreign policy is based on deep-seated objections to the political and economic systems of the United States. This is not to say that existing policy is necessarily wise or that there may not be good and sufficient reasons for wishing to change it. Indeed, at any time and place, the United States might well be overestimating the threat from the Soviet Union or using too much force. What I wish to suggest is that across-the-board criticism of American policy as inherently aggressive and repressive, regardless of circumstance – a litany of criticism so constant that it does not alert us to the need for explanation – has a structural basis in the rise of a political culture that is opposed to existing authority.To the extent that this criticism is structural, that is, inherent in domestic politics, the problem of fashioning foreign policies that can obtain widespread support is much more difficult than it is commonly perceived to be. For if the objection is to American ways of life and, therefore, “to the government for which it stands,” only a transformation of power relationships at home, together with a vast redistribution of economic resources, would satisfy these critics. If the objection is not only to what we do but, more fundamentally, to who we are, looking to changes in foreign policy to shore up domestic support is radically to confuse the causal connections and, therefore, the order of priorities.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Simon Miles
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
General Secretary ◽  
East West

This chapter describes the Soviet Union as the focus of evil in the modern world and, most famously, an evil empire. It mentions General Secretary Iuriĭ Andropov, who implied that Ronald Reagan had nothing to say but profanities alternated with hypocritical preaching on the Soviet Union and looks at an article in Pravda that summed up Andropov's foreign-policy as nuclear insanity. It also explains the Cold War's improbable and unpredictable end, such as Reagan rejecting the failed foreign-policy doctrines of containment. The chapter talks about Mikhail Gorbachev, whose new thinking transformed the Soviet Union and transcended the East–West confrontation. It illustrates the Cold War's denouement between 1985 and 1991 that is regularly cited as a textbook case of long-standing adversaries setting aside prior disagreements and beginning to cooperate.

scholarly journals THE IMPORTANCE OF MIDDLE EAST IN RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanaz Rostamjabri ◽  
Seyed Javad EmamJomehzadeh ◽  
Mahnaz Goodarzi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Russian Foreign Policy ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Vladimir Putin

The Soviet Union emerged as a superpower in the Cold War, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new Russia was formed. To achieve the hegemony of power, Russia's security document was given priority. In the first term, Vladimir Putin focused on pragmatism and emphasized the power of domestic politics and the revival of the Russian economy. In his second term, Putin focused on the politics of realism to gain power on the international stage and return to what Moscow is interested in. In his second term, Putin pursued a political (power expansion), security (avoiding differences), and economic (strengthening Russia) view Middle East. Therefore, in this study, Russian foreign policy in the Middle East and its importance The question for this study is: what factors in Russian foreign policy made the Middle East region important for Russia? And the hypothesis for this question: Russia's concern about Islamic fundamentalism (security), economic and political reasons are among the most important factors in directing its foreign policy to the Middle East.

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