ABSTRACT
It is clear that the number of actors involved in the formulation of US foreign policy has steadily increased over the past two decades thus limiting the executive’s freedom of action to decide and implement policy. Diplomacy is also no longer the preserve of the East Coast Ivy League elite manning the government bureaucracies and think tanks. What happens “inside the beltway” still matters but, more than ever before, so do attitudes and decisions in Miami, Dallas, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. Regional interests play an increasing role in shaping US foreign policy. There used to be a broad internationalist group overlapping the parties. But increasingly Democrats are likely to be foreign policy liberals, as southern conservatives switch to the Republican party; and Republicans are likely to be foreign policy conservatives, as moderate or liberal northern Republicans vanish from the scene. The changing domestic political environment could have significant implications for the future of US foreign policy. Population movements in the short term would seem to favor the Republican party and could lead to increasing unilateralism. In the longer term the higher birth rates of Hispanics and blacks could help the Democrats. It will be a growing problem to integrate the demands of the various ethnic lobbies into a coherent US foreign policy.
