ABSTRACT
Few foreign policy issues, outside of wars and treaties of peace after war, have involved the executive, the Congress, the public, interest groups, and the Departments of Defense and State as did the 1977 Panama Canal Treaties. This issue produced one of the heaviest letterwriting campaigns to Congress in American history, as large segments of the public continually and consistently opposed the treaties. Usually foreign policy in the United States is made by the president and his key advisors and cabinet. Arthur M. Schlesinger argues, Congress appeared increasingly impotent in the face of the size and momentum of die postwar institutions of American foreign policy — an institutional array spearheaded by an aggressive Presidency and supported by a military and intelligence establishment virtually beyond congressional reach. The ecological perspective analyzes dynamic relationships between an individual's actions and the setting and communities in which they are found. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
