Reagan and the world : leadership and national security, 1981-1989 / edited by Bradley Lynn Coleman and Kyle Longley ; foreword by Jack Matlock Jr.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Coleman, Bradley Lynn, 1973- editor.

Longley, Kyle, editor.

Series:

Studies in conflict, diplomacy, and peace.

Studies in Conflict, Diplomacy, and Peace

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reagan, Ronald--Influence.

Reagan, Ronald.

United States--Foreign relations--1981-1989.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 319 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2017]

Summary:

Throughout his presidency, Ronald Reagan sought 'peace through strength' during an era of historic change. In the decades since, pundits and scholars have argued over the president's legacy: some consider Reagan a charismatic and consummate leader who renewed American strength and defeated communism. To others he was an ambitious and dangerous warmonger whose presidency was plagued with mismanagement, misconduct, and foreign policy failures. The recent declassification of Reagan administration records and the availability of new Soviet documents has created an opportunity for more nuanced, complex, and compelling analyses of this pivotal period in international affairs. In Reagan and the World, leading scholars and national security professionals offer fresh interpretations of the fortieth president's influence on American foreign policy. This collection addresses Reagan's management of the US national security establishment as well as the influence of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and others in the administration and Congress. The contributors present in-depth explorations of US-Soviet relations and American policy toward Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. This balanced and sophisticated examination reveals the complexity of Reagan's foreign policy, clarifies the importance of other international actors of the period, and provides new perspectives on the final decade of the Cold War.

Contents:

Introduction / Bradley Lynn Coleman and Kyle Longley

Part I. Ronald Reagan and the national security establishment

Ronald Reagan's engagement and the Cold War / James Graham Wilson

A question of morality: Ronald Reagan and nuclear weapons / Beth A. Fischer

Beyond Cap the foil: Weinberger and the Reagan-era defense buildup / Ronald J. Granieri

Transformative leadership on Capitol Hill: the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act / James R. Locher III

Part II. The Soviet Union and Europe

Gorbachev, Perestroika, and the end of the Cold War / Archie Brown

For better and for worse: Ronald Reagan's relationship with Margaret Thatcher, 1981-1983 / James Cooper

The sense of history: Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand / William I. Hitchcock

Navigating choppy waters: US-German relations during the last decade of the Cold War / David F. Patton

Part III. Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East

Ronald Reagan and the puzzles of "so-called Communist China" and Vietnam / Michael Schaller

An obsession: the Central American policy of the Reagan Administration / Kyle Longley

Toward an ecological frontier: environmental policy, economic development, and US-Mexican relations during the Reagan presidency / Evan R. Ward

Stranger in a dangerous land: Reagan and Lebanon, 1981-1984 / Charles F. Brower IV

Researching Reagan: a guide for scholars of national security policy during the Ronald Reagan presidency / Ryan Carpenter.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based upon print version record.

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

ISBN:

0-8131-6939-9

0-8131-6938-0

OCLC:

983465314