Shifrinson Publishes Article on George H.W. Bush’s Foreign Policy
Joshua Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, recently published an article exploring President George H.W. Bush’s foreign policy legacy.
Shifrinson’s article, entitled “George H.W. Bush: American Radical,” was published in War on the Rocks on December 10, 2018.
From the text of the article:
Since his death, George H.W. Bush has been praised for his steady and prudent statesmanship at a time of global turbulence. This view isn’t wrong, but it is incomplete: Bush’s conduct may have been even-keeled, but his foreign policy was anything but. In fact, Bush oversaw the greatest transformation of American foreign relations since World War II.
Most Americans take it for granted that the United States should play a large role in global affairs. This attitude, however, is a recent development. After all, the United States came home after World War I, was reluctantly dragged into World War II, and — as the Cold War ramped up — the American public and policymaking elite alike had to be convinced to remain actively engaged in Europe and Asia. It was therefore not obvious that the United States would remain invested in Europe, Asia, and beyond as the Cold War ramped down. Take away the Soviet threat — so a powerful line of argument went in the late 1980s and early 1990s — and the United States could and should reduce its overseas commitments.
With the Cold War over, there was a good case to be made that the United States should revert back to its traditional disengagement. Indeed, members of the Democrat-led Congress held hearings along these lines, while Bush’s own party saw figures such as Pat Buchanan make hay out of the desire for a “peace dividend.” After all, the 1970s and 1980s were a point when worries over American decline and the concomitant rise of capable states such as Japan and reunified Germany were widespread. If ever a time seemed propitious for the United States to save money by cutting its overseas presence and letting other states bear the costs of providing security for themselves in a (much improved) international environment, this was it.
Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson’s teaching and research interests focus on the intersection of international security and diplomatic history, particularly the rise and fall of great powers and the origins of grand strategy. He has special expertise in great power politics since 1945 and U.S. engagement in Europe and Asia. Shifrinson’s first book, Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts (Cornell University Press, 2018) builds on extensive archival research focused on U.S. and Soviet foreign policy after 1945 to explain why some rising states challenge and prey upon declining great powers, while others seek to support and cooperate with declining states.