The first edition of this landmark work is one of the Brookings Institution's most successful titles. Since that original publication, authors Morton Halperin and Priscilla Clapp, with Arnold Kanter have been significant participants in America's foreign policy community. This thoroughly revised book updates their 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 policy making.
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.