Realism and Idealism in Foreign Policy Decision Making

(Hardback)

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Description

Using a typology of worldviews based on perception of threat and expansionist or isolationist objectives, Hayden J. Smith examines influences on the foreign policy decision-making of individual US Presidentsincluding Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

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This book breaks new ground in bringing both image theory and operational code analysis to focus on the task of understanding the realist and idealist worldviews of several U.S. presidents as they have made foreign policy decisions over the past forty-five years. The images and beliefs of these leaders are important sources for identifying the systemic and cultural factors that influenced these decisions as well as the contents of their individual worldviews.

Author Bio

Hayden J. Smith is in the Department of Political Science at Western Carolina University.