This book presents essays by cabinet members, world leaders, and scholars examining the formation of President George H. W. Bush's character and the factors that influenced his leadership as a legislator, a diplomat, and an American president. In many ways, the presidency of George H. W. Bush was a transitional presidency. The end of the Cold War ushered in a new world with the United States as the dominant power. While many might credit his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, as the one who brought an end to the conflict with the former Soviet Union, George H. W. Bush was an associate president, serving as Vice President during Reagan's two terms. While supporting the work of the Reagan administration and, therefore, providing some continuity with it, President Bush had a different style of leadership and new priorities to establish. This volume of essays by cabinet members, world leaders, and scholars examine the formation of Bush's character and the factors that influenced his leadership as a legislator, a diplomat, and an American president. His family background, his military service, his life experience before going into public life, and the various positions in government service are all reviewed by friends, colleagues, and objective observers. The end result is the most detailed examination ever attempted of Bush's character and its impact on his career.

This collection examines the political themes and strategies utilized by candidate Bush in 1988 and President Bush in 1992, as told by the actual players as well as presidential and political scholars. Also considered are the role of the Vice President, the Cabinet, relations with Congress and the Supreme Court, the presidency and the media, and the role of the First Lady.

This volume focuses on the political world inside the Bush White House. Domestic political actors and institutions such as the vice president, chief of staff, Congress, and the Supreme Court all interact to create a president's political world. In George Bush's inaugural speech he spoke of the keys to success, saying these ideas are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment. These themes are seen by many of the writers in the collection as characterizing the political world of George Bush.

Equal consideration is given to the political themes and strategies utilized by candidate Bush in 1988 and President Bush in 1992. Also considered are the role of the Vice President, the Cabinet, relations with Congress and the Supreme Court, the presidency and the media, and the role of the First Lady. Essential reading for scholars and other researchers of the Bush presidency and American history of the late 1980s.

One of the most significant areas of activity in the George Bush administration was foreign affairs. Drawing together participants as well as foreign policy scholars and journalists, Hofstra Universtiy organized the 1997 Conference on the Presidency of George Bush. This volume covers the key foreign affairs activities of the administration.

The essays examine major areas of the Bush foreign policy record. Included are papers on international trade, the Middle East, Latin America, Somalia, Bosnia, arms control, and U.S. base closing. Scholars, students, and other researchers involved with the policies of the Bush administration will find this a useful resource.

Bill Clinton came to the presidency during the first moments of the post-Cold War era, when the United States and the international system were at a crossroads. Faced with the choice of either retreating from the world or acting as world policeman, Clinton chose a path of unabashed practical internationalism. His foreign policy embraced globalization, free trade and the promotion of democracy abroad, while acknowledging American limits. Scholarly and pubic interest in Clintons foreign policy have peaked recently, as the shape of the Trump administrations foreign policy has unfolded. Todays populist nationalists might be seen as reacting to the Clinton agenda: They have attacked free trade and internationalism as a bad deal for US workers, striking out not only at trade agreements, but at immigration, refugee acceptance, US intervention, and international institutions such as the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto Protocol. Today, advocates of free trade and international engagement warn that the United States must continue to take a leadership role in steering the international agreements and institutions that it helped to create, as a way of advancing American prosperity and security. This is the reason the Clinton administrations foreign policy legacy continues to be important today. To understand America First, we must first understand the underpinnings of globalization and the policy of practical internationalism. During Clintons time in office and not long after, many scholars struggled to find coherence to the administrations foreign policy legacy, despite the administrations continued assertions of an overarching strategy. Today, it is more apparent than ever that 1) Clintons foreign policy had a cohesive theme, 2) his internationalism sowed the seeds of our current America First brand of populism, and 3) Clintons successes and failures hold important lessons for policymakers today. The introduction to this edited volume explores these themes, and the remainder of the books seventeen chapters, authored by scholars of comparative politics, international relations and history, expand on particular policies. With the Trump administration midterm assessments coming in Fall 2018 and Winter 2019, there will be heightened interest in the background of such issues as engagement with North Korea; terrorism; nuclear proliferation; relations with China, India, and Japan; peacemaking in Northern Ireland; cooperation with NATO and the UN; and the difficulty of pursuing peace in the Middle East.