ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the Clinton shift with reference to large, contextual changes and/or to changes in the specifics of the Northern Ireland situation or the American institutional setting. During the Cold War, even children understood America’s security mission. President Clinton’s policy toward Northern Ireland was ‘a stunning shift,’ that reversed ‘200 years of American foreign policy.’ Anglo- American disharmony certainly has to be considered in any assessment of Bill Clinton’s policy toward Northern Ireland. The chief architects of Clinton’s policy all cite the Hume-Adams initiative as central to American involvement. Clinton came to accept that Irish republicans, a constituency historically opposed to much of what America did in the world, should be granted a role in peacemaking in Northern Ireland. A more persuasive alternative explanation for the Northern Ireland policy shift is to be found in the deteriorating political situation in which President Clinton found himself early in his first term.
