ABSTRACT
We have been arguing thus far that the U.S. response to Venezuela’s challenge has been shaped largely by the executive branch’s preferences. These preferences have in turn been determined mainly by external factors (e.g., Venezuela’s evolution into a midlevel security threat, U.S. attempts to manage its oil dependence) and to some extent by eff ective lobbying from the Western Hemisphere desk of the State Department, which by 2006 felt more relaxed about the risks posed by Chávez. Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to assert that only external factors have infl uenced policy or that only executive branch forces are involved. Just as in Venezuela, domestic politics and actors play a role. But unlike in Venezuela, where the executive branch and increasingly the military are sole deciders of foreign policy, the key domestic actor in U.S. foreign policy has been the U.S. Congress.
