Betty Glad (photo)
 

Betty Glad                                                                            
Olin D. Johnston Professor of Political Science
University of South Carolina
1002 Wildewood Downs Circle
Columbia, SC 29223
(803) 699-0660
glad@mailbox.sc.edu





Betty Glad is the Olin D. Johnston Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina. She has served as president of the International Society for Political Psychology, president of the Presidency Research Group of the APSA, and vice president of the American Political Science Association. In 1997 she received the Harold Lasswell Award of the International Society for Political Psychology for a lifetime of outstanding contribution to political psychology. In 2000 the American Political Science Association recognized her contributions to the field of political science in the Frank Goodnow Award. Her most recent work, An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, His Advisors and the Making of US Foreign Policy will be published by Cornell University Press in late 2009. Earlier books include Striking First: The Preventive War Doctrine and the Reshaping of US Foreign Policy (co-editor and contributor); The Russian Transformation: Political, Sociological and Psychological Aspects (co-editor and contributor); Jimmy Carter: In Search of the Great White House; The Psychological Dimensions of War; Key Pittman: The Tragedy of a Senate Insider; and Charles Evans Hughes and The Illusions of Innocence. She has appeared on several national television and radio shows including The American Experience documentary on Jimmy Carter, The Mc Neil Leher News Hour and National Public Radio.

An Outsider in the White House: Jimmy Carter, His Advisers, and the Making of US Foreign Policy

Jimmy Carter embraced an idea often reiterated by students of the American Presidency: that the President alone is the one that makes all the final decisions on foreign policy. This book provides another perspective. The President is not just one man with agents who follow his directions, for better or worse. Rather, the President is at the center of a complex web of men and women, with common and conflicting goals, in which big and small decisions are made at several points. Advisors shape the policy options the President receives, screen the information that crosses his desk, advise him on appropriate courses to take, and implement his policies with greater or lesser vigor. At times, especially when a President is inexperienced in policymaking and the ways of Washington advisors may put their own goals ahead of those of the President, building up a bureaucratic momentum for courses he may not favor.

In Carter’s case, he desired a collegial form of foreign policy-making but wound up with a “team of rivals” that fought over his foreign policy soul. His successes -- the Camp David Accords and the return of Canal to Panama were the due to his skills and the assistance of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and other top-notch diplomatic players. But Carter’s NSA, Zbigniew Brzezinski and the allies he gathered along the way led Carter into place where he did not intend to be. At the end of his single term in office the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) was in limbo, a nuclear counter force doctrine had been adopted, and his human rights policies had evolved into efforts to enlist the support of Pope John Paul II in efforts to muffle human rights champion Archbishop Romero of El Salvador when he publicly condemned the murderous regime in El Salvador. Carter’s vulnerability that lay in a staff structure permitting a motivated tactician (Brzezinski) to move him in a muscular direction that he had not envisaged when he came to office are documented here for the first time from original sources.

Striking First (cover photo)

Striking First: The Preventive War Doctrine and the Reshaping of U.S. Foreign Policy

The Bush administration's emphasis on a preemptive first strike doctrine, along with its resort to unilateral decision making and commitment to sustaining US hegemony in the world, has challenged the very fundamentals of both the world political order and American political institutions.  In this work, leading American scholars, in a series of essays, explore how these policies were made, the premises upon which they were based, their possible consequences for US domestic institutions, and its position in the world.  The work concludes with two different perspectives on the necessity of and the prospects for the new American empire.

Author Biography:
Betty Glad is the Olin D. Johnston Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina and the recipient of several awards including the Harold D. Laswell Award of the International Society of Political Psychologists and the Clarence Goodnow Award of the American Political Science Association.

Chris J. Dolan is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Central Florida. His research on American Foreign Policy, US National Security, and the American presidency appears in Policy Studies Journal, Congress and the Presidency, White House Studies, Politics and Policy, and International Politics.

Early comments:
“Preemption and prevention are age-old instruments of statecraft that have acquired new relevance after 9/11 and the US war in Iraq.  Striking First  provides a variety of expert perspectives on the role of preemption and prevention in the evolution of U.S. strategic doctrine, the internal political struggles that shaped that doctrine, the impact of these changes on American presidential power and legal processes, and their ramifications for the international order and the limits of American power.  One cannot comprehend our rapidly changing world without understanding these international and domestic processes, and Striking First provides timely and penetrating insights on these critical subjects.” 
                         Jack S. Levy, Board of Governors’ Professor, Rutgers University


“The alarmed contributors to this book recognize that America’s strategic doctrine stands at a critical turning point with far-reaching future implications.  One need not agree with all the arguments advanced by the authors to this most timely volume to recognize they tap into vital questions of preemptive war.  The volume should contribute importantly to the needed public debate among everyone concerned with the role of the United States in world affairs.”
                        Charles F. Hermann, George Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University


Table of Contents:
Part I: The Political Impact of 9/11 and Wars Against Rogue Regimes * Foreign Policy on the Offensive--Chris J. Dolan * The Ascendancy of Vice President Dick Cheney--Jack Lechelt * The Mainstream Opposition's Reaction and the Roots of the Washington Treat Consensus--Jacques E.C. Hymans * Can Tyrants be Deterred?-- * Betty Glad * The US and. Iraq: American Bull in a Middle East China Shop--Clement Henry * Counterterrorism and the Perils of Preemption: Problems of Command and control--David Tucker

Part II: Domestic Repercussions: Bureaucratic and Legal * Organizing for Homeland Security in Post 9/11 America--David B. Cohen and Alethia Cooke* The Political and Legal Status of Persons in the War on Terrorism--Drew Noble Lanier

Part III: Broader Impact *  Expansion of the President's War Powers--Louis Fisher * George W. Bush and Presidential Leadership--Michael Genovese * American public Opinion on Foreign Policy, Pre and Post-September 11--Ole R. Holsti * The UN and the Legal Status of Preemptive and Preventive War--Roger Coate * Transatlantic Relations at the Turn of the 21st Century--Donald Puchala *  Part IV: The American Empire in Perspective * The Prospects for American Hegemony--Robert Jervis * The Limits of Empire--Betty Glad

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