This book's unique combination of case studies and commentaries provides the basis for a systematic discussion of the role of individual leaders and complex institutions in U.S. foreign policy making. The case studies present routine and urgent, controversial and consensus-driven decisions in nine presidential administrations--"from Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, to George W. Bush's responses to international terrorism in the wake of 9/11. Each chapter includes essential background information, a chronology of events, and primary source documents. Through...

In nine detailed case studies based on interviews with participants and on recently released documents in the Carter presidential library, Robert Strong carefully examines how the thirty-ninth president of the United States addressee and accomplished the work of foreign policy during his term. Working in the World illuminates the nature and range of the "work" the presidency is given to do in foreign affairs; often insight into American foreign policy during what w now know was the decline of the cold war; and defends foreign policy making in the Carter years against the oversimplifications...