Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores a multi-level framework by analysing the president's interaction with the executive, the Congress and the international system. It explains that structural theories, and any approach that limits itself to one level of analysis, are inadequate to explain the development of US foreign policy. The book also explains the role of presidential agency in US foreign policy during the Cold War administrations of Truman and Reagan. It argues that the worldview of the president is central to agenda setting in US foreign policy-making, and that the management style of the president influences both decision-making and the implementation of US foreign policy. Drawing on foreign policy analysis, international relations theory, presidential studies and the historiography of US foreign policy during the Cold War, the book constructs a multi-level case study comparison of the foreign policies of Presidents Truman and Reagan.