Transformative Choices: Leaders and the Origins of Intervention Strategy

When and why do great powers seek to transform foreign institutions and societies through military interventions? What role does executive leadership play in influencing the choice of intervention strategy, especially the degree to which an intervention interferes in the domestic institutions of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International security 2009-10, Vol.34 (2), p.119-161
Main Author: Saunders, Elizabeth N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Belief & doubt
Cold wars
Communism
Comparative analysis
Cost-benefit analysis
Counterinsurgency
Decision Making
Democracy
Foreign Policy
Great powers
Intervention
Johnson, Lyndon B
Johnson, Lyndon Baines (1908-1973)
Kennedy, John F
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1917-1963)
Leadership
Military Intervention
Military Strategy
Political leadership
Third World
Threat
U.S.A
Vietnam War
War
War conflict
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Summary:When and why do great powers seek to transform foreign institutions and societies through military interventions? What role does executive leadership play in influencing the choice of intervention strategy, especially the degree to which an intervention interferes in the domestic institutions of the target state? A typology of political leaders based on whether they believe that the internal characteristics of other states are the ultimate source of threats indicates that these threat perceptions shape the cost-benefit calculation leaders make when they confront intervention decisions; they also have important consequences for how states intervene. A comparison of the beliefs of President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as their decisionmaking during the Vietnam War, illustrates how the theory operates.
ISSN:0162-2889
1531-4804
DOI:10.1162/isec.2009.34.2.119