Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy

OSI’s Director of U.S. Advocacy Morton H. Halperin has published a new edition of Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy (The Brooklings Institution), where he revisits the widely popular original volume with Priscilla Clapp and Arnold Kanter. The authors have been significant participants in America’s foreign policy community.

This thoroughly revised book updates the classic analysis of the role played by the federal bureaucracy—civilian career officials, political appointees, and military officers—in formulating U.S. national security policy, illustrating how policy decisions are actually made. The second edition also includes an expanded analysis of Congress’s role in the politics of foreign policymaking.

Government agencies, departments, and individuals all have certain interests to preserve and promote. Those priorities, and the conflicts they sometimes spark, heavily influence the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy provides numerous examples of bureaucratic maneuvering and reveals how they have influenced U.S. international relations. The revised edition includes examples of bureaucratic politics from the past three decades, from Jimmy Carter’s view of the State Department to conflicts between George W. Bush and the bureaucracy regarding Iraq.