Grand Strategy and the Presidency: Foreign Policy, War and the American Role in the World

by Walton; C. Dale

• ISBN13: 9780415598323
• ISBN10: 041559832X
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781136454738
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book examines the role of the Presidency in the formulation and conduct of US grand strategy and why this is important.It argues that, while the United States periodically has enjoyed exceptional presidential leadership in the past, few future presidents will meet high standards of leadership in foreign affairs. In turn, this will undermine the ability of the United States to construct and maintain a coherent grand strategy appropriate to the multipolar world of the twenty-first century. This is because there is little incentive, and often minimal opportunity, for prospective presidential candidates to cultivate the knowledge and skills that can translate into exceptional performance in the conduct of foreign policy and war. The US political system is "weighted" so as to favor candidates with particular characteristics'”such as personal magnetism and the ability to speak fluidly'”and voters generally use debates, press conferences, and other media-driven events to judge the strategic acumen of candidates. The book discusses US strategic history, with particular emphasis on the period from the end of the Cold War to the present, and diagnoses the weaknesses present in US strategic decision making and the challenges that Washington soon will face as great powers such as China grow more capable of influencing the international security environment and threatening US interests. It also explains, first, why exceptional presidential guidance is important to US strategic success in this century, and then establishes why such leadership is unlikely to be forthcoming. The book's final chapter discusses the probable effects of dubious presidential leadership, exploring why it is likely that the United States can be expected often to expend its strength on conflicts that do not advance its national interests, but may fail to intervene effectively in some of the international controversies most vital to its national interests.This book will be of interest to students of Presidential Studies, US foreign policy, Strategic Studies, and IR/Security Studies in general.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Strategic success considered	p. 2
Missed opportunities and uncertain prospects	p. 6
The quiet crisis: presidents and strategy in recent decades	p. 8
Voters, presidents, and the future of US strategy	p. 8
The management of predictable failure	p. 11
Conclusion	p. 13
Beyond all expectations: the American rise to preeminence	p. 14
Surviving: independence and state-building	p. 15
Thriving: the early expansion of the republic	p. 20
Slavery, territorial consolidation, and external conquest	p. 22
A near-death experience: the Civil War	p. 30
Holding fire: American reluctance to join the great powers	p. 34
Titan: the new world arbiter of European politics	p. 40
Conclusion	p. 44
Victory disease: Cold War triumph and its aftermath	p. 46
The Soviet challenge: the United States as protecting power	p. 47
Erratic quality: the Cold War presidents and containment	p. 51
Misadventures: Washington's Cold War errors considered	p. 56
Plinking rats: an unimpressive hegemony	p. 63
Conclusion	p. 67
The slow drift: power without strategic clarity	p. 69
History, again: the return of great power military competition	p. 70
A too-narrow focus: the global war on terrorism in context	p. 71
Risky inertia: the fixation on counterterrorism	p. 79
Conclusion: crafting a grand strategy for a multipolar world	p. 85
The decider: the importance of presidential greatness	p. 87
Term-limited emperors: the presidency and foreign policy	p. 88
For good or ill: the presidency and American strategic culture	p. 90
Failure within the policy elite: the NSS example	p. 95
Warlords: presidents as military leaders	p. 100
Warning the warlord: public criticism as counsel	p. 102
Conclusion	p. 106
Feet of clay: making inadequate strategists and war leaders	p. 108
Shutting the school: the decline of strategic education	p. 108
A shallow pool: the strategic knowledge of potential presidents	p. 112
Conclusion: the wrong questions	p. 118
Lost wars, bleak peace: the tragedy of presidential weakness	p. 120
Repeating errors: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond	p. 120
Leveraging Mars: the uses and limits of military power	p. 135
The flight from reality: threats, diplomacy, and strategic circularity	p. 139
No longer alone: America in a world great power competition	p. 143
Tyranny's rewards: America's great power competitors	p. 149
Conclusion	p. 153
Conclusion	p. 155
Notes	p. 159
References	p. 182
Index	p. 200
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