Strategic Direction from the President: A Century of US Foreign Policy, 1915-2015

Investigates the strategy and intent of the American president in pursuit of national security, using a case study approach spanning the last century. Strategic Direction takes inspiration from the following sentence in Henry Kissinger’s Diplomacy: “In the American system of government, in which the president is the only nationally elected official, coherence in foreign policy emerges-if at all-from presidential pronouncements.” The conditional phrase-if at all-suggests coherence doesn’t happen by itself, doesn’t happen very often, and doesn’t last very long.Why not?To answer this question, Strategic Direction uses a case study approach spanning 1915-2015.The first case study begins in 1915 when Woodrow Wilson justifies his decision to remain neutral in the first world war.The last case study ends in 2015 with a warning from Barack Obama about the risks of perpetual war.Through an exploration of verbal and written communication, including documents, executive orders, memorandums, and o