ABSTRACT
The Reagan legacy of unsolved problems—geostrategic, regional, economic, and political—begins with the US-Soviet relationship. As the post-reagan era approaches, a startling paradox is beginning to haunt people who take national-security issues seriously: a strong-minded president who has presided over an apparently successful foreign policy is likely to bequeath to his successor an ominous global agenda. A closer scrutiny of Reagan's successes reveals a perplexing reality. Almost all of these accomplishments are reactive in nature. Many in the administration have become obsessed with the staging of a Reagan-Gorbachev summit. Reagan assumed office with a truly impressive national mandate. In a praiseworthy precedent, his transition team even included a former Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Henry Jackson. A future president, inevitably weaker than the formidable Ronald Reagan, is bound to suffer even more from our partisan polarization over foreign policy.
