Date of Submission
Spring 2016
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Political Studies
Project Advisor 1
Simon Gilhooley
Abstract/Artist's Statement
This project analyzes the role and limits of the presidential policy-making in foreign policy through an examination of President Richard Nixon’s policy of détente with the Soviet Union and China during the 1960s and 1970s.
I will ultimately present a set of four components that I argue played a role in enabling Nixon to pursue détente at the time he did. The four consequential factors include the following: First, domestic conditions exist in which the general public is focused primarily on domestic policy. Second, the existing international conditions allow for a change in foreign policy. Third, when a president is personally in a position to take advantage of the “informal powers” of the presidency and take leadership over public opinion. And fourth, when a president assumes office at a moment in which a previous “regime” of foreign policy is failing.
Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Drilling, Gregory Donald, "Presidential Power in Foreign Policy: Richard Nixon and the Era of Détente with the Soviet Union and China" (2016). Senior Projects Spring 2016. 242.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2016/242
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Included in
American Politics Commons, International Relations Commons, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons