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The article reviews the web site the Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, which can be found at http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu:8080/pgwde, and the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799, which is available at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html.

Given their long tenure and broad powers, Supreme Court justices are among the most powerful actors in American politics. In this paper, we present a model of the nomination process that highlights the how uncertainty about a potential justice's preferences can lead a president to prefer a nominee with extreme preferences. In certain cases, Senators may also prefer extreme nominees, leading to the nomination and confirmation of justices whose preferences seem to diverge from those of elected officials. While our focus in this paper is on the Supreme Court, the analysis extends in many ways to other multimember appointed bodies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews papers that have recently published earlier in other journals and which relate to the field of public opinion research. The reviews are grouped according to the following six topics: politics, elections and social values; public opinion on current issues; public opinion theory; methodology of public opinion polling; polls as a social and political factor; and mass media and public opinion. The article "The 1992 Vote for President Clinton: Another Brittle Mandate," by Everett Ladd examines the 1992 U.S. presidential election. The basic argument is that U.S. President Bill Clinton's defeat of George W. Bush resulted from an unusual combination of short-term forces, rather than from shifts in the partisan attachments across the electorate or from changed views on the proper course of public policy. Another article "Voter Preference and Behavior in the Presidential Election of 1988," examines the relationship among voting-relevant feelings, beliefs, and actions in a meaningful and important social context.

The overarching question this paper addresses is whether and, if so, to what extent can existing IR theories commonly associated with high politics decision making be applied to low politics issue areas, specifically international environmental policy. The paper serves to test poliheuristic theory against two case studies, The Montreal Protocol and The Kyoto Protocol, to assess its ability to explain the decision-making processes of four United States presidents. The paper concludes that poliheuristic theory adequately explains the presidents’ behavior in virtually all cases. It is especially effective in explaining the first phase of the decision-making process. The paper also suggests in the conclusion that a president’s “environmentalness” may affect his decision-making behavior in the first phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents book notes included in the 1986 issue of the "Journal of American History." "History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson," by Henry Adams; "The Hiroshima Maidens: A Story of Courage, Compassion, and Survival," by Rodney Barker; "IBM's Early Computers," by Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Jonhson, John H. Palmer and Emerson W. Pugh.

The article focuses on the book "The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937-1940," compiled and collated Samuel I. Rosenman. Four volumes covering the second administration, i.e. 1937-1940, have just been published to supplement volumes of the first four years. They should be read because they refresh the memory with surprising effect, they show U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in new moments when many of his off-the-record press conference comments are now released, and above all because they give a complete view of the President as he wants to be known instead of the spasmodic glimpses afforded by the isolated daily event. They give immediate insight to works of a President who can already be counted among the outstanding men of that office. The press conference excerpts are the most interesting items in these volumes. The informal give and take between the President and correspondents throughout these four volumes, sometimes in bad feeling and sometimes in great good feeling, is probably as revealing about American national being as anything that can ever be said by any President.

The article presents the characteristics of the press during months of July, August and September of 1940, which were strongly reminiscent of July, August, and September of 1916. Amongst the similarities it is seen that during both the periods a Democratic President was running for re-election. Fear of being involved in a European war was topmost in the minds of the voters, and the national defense and foreign policies were hotly debated issues of the campaign. Especially there is a striking similarity in the attacks upon the administration in power for "failure to adequately build up the national defense." The National Newspaper Week that began on Monday, September 30 was devoted to making the American public aware of the value of a free press. The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Wendell L. Willkie, the Republican candidate, wrote National Newspaper Week letters emphasizing the necessity of a free press in upholding democracy, and most of the daily papers in the country published their letters. All of the straight Republican and independent Republican newspapers in the country supported Willkie's candidacy for the Presidency. Less than one-half of the newspapers which described themselves as independent Democratic were supporting Roosevelt.

The essay presents an examination into the sermons given in the weeks following the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, discussing how Protestant ministers addressed issues of both national identity and Christian theology in response to the mourning of the nation. Subjects addressed include the portrayal of Kennedy as a martyr, the reaction of Dallas, Texas as the location of the assassination, and the combined themes of collective guilt and citizenship.

This paper contrasts the establishment of affirmative action in employment with the failure of the U S Department of Housing and Urban Development to establish aggressive race-conscious policies addressing residential segregation during the Nixon Administration Making use of previously untapped archival sources from HUD and the Nixon Presidential Materials, this paper argues that the key to understanding these divergent outcomes is consideration of these policies' "institutional homes," which have both direct and mediating effects on policy development. Bureaucrats in the employment bureaucracies had singular missions and clear career incentives to devise aggressive approaches to employment discrimination. In contrast, the fair housing staff at HUD found itself in a disjointed bureaucracy comprised of many formerly independent agencies with multiple missions. A disadvantaged institutional home, like that fated by HUD's fair housing staff will tend to encourage policy feedback that constrains rather than enables aggressive action, dilute the impact of institutional activists, increase the threat of Presidential sanctions, and enhance the risk of `delegitimation" by oilier political actors and the media. This paper illustrates how HUD fell prey to these dangers as scandals at the Federal Housing Administration gave President Nixon the political justification to freeze housing funds and consequently derail the agency`s desegregation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the role of United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the evolution of the military industrial complex. Eisenhower's relationship with the scientific community; Integration of science into national security state; Formation of a scientific-technological elite; Appointment of James Killian as an adviser.

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and on our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com), the results of these conversations. This oral history is with Dr. Gene E. Likens, emeritus president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and a distinguished professor at the University of Connecticut. He also served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Note: Both the text and audio versions have been edited for clarity and length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and in our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com), the results of these conversations. This oral history is with Joel Cracraft, curator in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History. He previously served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Note: Both the text and audio versions have been edited for clarity and length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010 and 2011, highly visible national surveys documented frequent failure among the public, especially among Republicans, to acknowledge that Barack Obama was born in the United States. However, different questions yielded strikingly different results. The highest rate of partisan division was generated by a CBS/New York Times closed-ended question that included potentially leading introductory sentences. The smallest partisan gap in apparent misinformation was generated by an ABC News/Washington Post open-ended question that did not ask a follow-up that was needed to gauge public beliefs about whether Mr. Obama was born in the United States. This paper reviews the polls on birtherism and describes an experiment embedded in a nationally representative sample survey testing whether methodological features of these two questions might have distorted their results and caused the apparent discrepancy between them. A version of the closed-ended question including the leading introductory sentences yielded a much larger degree of apparent partisan division than did a version of the question without the introductory sentences. Following the open question with another question that clarified people’s beliefs (asking about whether Hawaii was part of the United States at the time of Barack Obama’s birth) did not alter the conclusions supported by that item about the accuracy of public understanding. This study therefore illustrates how different question wording caused different polls to produce notably different results and provides a caution about the use of potentially leading wording. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Though presidential doctrines claim to be broad, forward-looking articulations of national security principles, they are in fact reactive and narrow. They emerge following crises and can subsequently constrain security policy, creating ideal conditions for new crises to emerge. This paper thus argues that in the pursuit of security, presidential doctrines can perpetuate a cycle of instability. Using the Nixon Doctrine as the present case study reveals that the strategy first came as a response to the failure in Vietnam, then rendered the US unable to foresee or manage the events of 1979: the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. These crises subsequently forced a wholesale reassessment of security in the form of the Carter Doctrine. In examining this period of US-Middle East relations, the constricting, reactive nature of doctrines and the concomitant cycles of instability become self-evident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the surge and decline of presidential approval following rally events. We develop a theoretical framework grounded in psychology and political entrepreneurship to explain not only who joins and leaves the rally, but why. We argue that threatening events such as 9/11 heighten the link between national identity and presidential approval, but this link fades as political entrepreneurs make partisan identities more salient. We find support for these propositions using analysis of pooled cross-sectional survey datasets and content analysis of elite discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil religious themes have long been integral to public discourse in Ameba. Specifically the themes of mission and destiny, best known in the form of Manifest Destiny, still carry the country through periods of foreign conflict. This paper analyzes the discourses of President George Bush during the Persian Gulf War and President Bill Clinton during the Kosovo conflict. I identify the themes of mission by example and mission by intervention and argue that these forms of mission are intertwined. The use of these themes by presidents of different political ponies indicates that while they remain useful, they are adapting for a changing political and economic world system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was a fierce battle between the executive and the legislature, which it appeared that U.S. President Ronald Reagan would lose. Yet, he made it clear to the President where he stood on this issue.[79] President Reagan's complaint that Begin broke his promise not to lobby in Congress against the AWACS deal was unjustified and could only reflect the pressure the President was under, fighting for the approval of the AWACS deal. The AWACS was just another item on this list.[93] As an epilogue, President Reagan stated in a letter to Prime Minister Begin that while the Senate approved the President's bill for the supply of the AWACS, the Israel-United States special relationship would thrive and grow.[94] The letter could be read as a call to move forward, now that the source of friction had been removed. There is nothing in the Reagan-Begin meeting records about Begin's appearance in Congress.[78] We do not have a record of the report the President received after Lewis's meeting with Begin, but considering Reagan's disappointment, it seems that the President received the wrong message. [Extracted from the article]

This study measures a spiral of silence in the context of actual opinion change during President George Bush's polarity decline in one of his political strongholds. Willingness of voters to publicly express their inions about Bush were analyzed over three pre-election surveys(N = I,800) sponsored by a prominent local newspaper in Orange County, California. Respondents were asked whether or not they would be willing to be reinterviewed by a reporter and have their names and views published in the paper. The hypothesis that Bush supporters would be less willing than others to agree to be reinterviewed during the period in which the president's ratings were dropping sharply is supported. This trend was most in evidence at the beginning of the presidential campaign, when Bush's ratings were in the steepest decline. These findings indicate the importance of actual opinion shifts in spiral of silence research, and suggest several issues for future research on opinion change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the role of the U.S. in the Dienbienphu crisis of 1954 during the Vietnam War. Reference to an article published in the newspaper "Washington Post," which discussed the plan of former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to intervene during the crisis; Attempts of Eisenhower to organize an allied coalition to resist Communist encroachments in Southeast Asia; Overview of favorable interpretations of Eisenhower's diplomacy during the crisis.

In the article, the authors evaluate the leadership style of former U.S. President Donald Trump as compared to other American presidents and world leaders using the leadership trait analysis (LTA) framework developed by Margaret Hermann. Other topics include Trump's alleged high level of distrust and lack of interest in public policy, and how Trump's traits as a directive leader are reflected in his decision making during the U.S. troops' withdrawal from Syria and the American policy toward North Korea.

Reviews the microfilm "The Diaries of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1967," which focuses on the performance of Dwight D. Eisenhower as U.S. president. Contents of the microfilm; Categories of materials included in the microfilm; Quality of the microfilm.

This article assesses United States President Joe Biden's approach to intelligence. It evaluates his evolving relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency and the rest of the intelligence community from the early 1970s, when he was elected to Congress, to the early 2020s, when he became the forty-sixth president of the United States. It concludes that, against the ever-changing context of international affairs, from the late Cold War to the global 'war on terror', Biden's approach to intelligence has remained consistent and stable, showing, on the one hand, enthusiasm for the production of national intelligence, and, on the other, a marked uneasiness about paramilitary covert action and the militarization of intelligence. The discussion that follows speaks to a larger debate, dating to the 1940s and still ongoing, in the executive and legislative branches of government, concerning the purposes and proper use of intelligence. This will interest policy-makers, officials and lawmakers responsible for intelligence and oversight, researchers and practitioners in security and intelligence, and scholars of American foreign relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Americans are anxious about crime regardless of their actual exposure or risk. Given this pervasive concern, US presidents frequently talk about crime, take actions to address it, and list crime prevention efforts among their top accomplishments. We argue that presidents act this way, in part, because fear of crime translates into lowered presidential approval. However, this penalty is not applied evenly. Given the parties' stances toward crime and the criminal justice system, White Americans punish Democratic presidents (i.e. Clinton and Obama) more severely when they are anxious about crime, while Black Americans are more punitive toward Republican presidents (i.e. Bush and Trump). We examine twenty years of survey data and find evidence consistent with our theory. Our results suggest that the relationship between fear of crime and presidential accountability is conditioned by an individual's race and the president's party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do leaders matter? What do leaders want? Grandiose narcissism provides a pathway to understanding how personality can impact a leader's preference formation and foreign policy behavior. More narcissistic leaders will focus their efforts on maintaining their inflated self-image by selecting how they will fight on the world stage and who they will fight against. While most leaders will divert attention to easier won battles, more narcissistic leaders will prefer to fight against high-status states by themselves. This article introduces a new measure of US' presidential narcissism, and finds support for the argument that more narcissistic US presidents prefer unilaterally initiating Great Power disputes using data from 1897–2008. A brief review of Theodore Roosevelt's handling of the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903 is used as a plausibility probe of the theory's causal mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the competence of Ronald Reagan in holding the presidency of the U.S. This paper focuses on the impact of Reagan as a successful president who has achieved several principal policies and objectives apart from all the negative issues created by the supposed mishandling of foreign policy in the Iran arms fiasco in late 1986. Several of the analysis to Reagan's administration missed the efficacy and competence of his political leadership, gaining acceptance of his policies, getting cooperation from other political leaders of the national legislature, and other competencies which this article will emphasize.

The article discusses the Reagan legacy to the Republican Party at the 1986 American Mid-Term elections. This paper tries to clarify what impacts has Ronald Reagan effected to the American party politics. It focuses on three components to the 1986 results seen as a deviant election. First it is suggested that the sixth term of a presidential party sitting in power is generally characterized to do badly as factors may be greatly emphasized by the opposing party. Other factors in the Reagan collapse are the pattern incumbency in gubernatorial races, and the Democratic Party advantage.

This article traces the development of communication from the White House in Washington D.C. during a critical period in the United States' history. President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information by executive order on April 14, 1917, eight days after the U.S. had declared war. It soon came to be known as the Creel Committee because of its dynamic chairman, George Creel, former journalist and free-lance writer. The idea for the Committee, whose ostensible purpose was to deal with the problem of censorship and enlist the public's understanding of and participation in the war effort, apparently was the President's, so far as one can tell. The twentieth century has witnessed what can only be called a major shift of the center of gravity in the U.S. national governmental system away from the legislative branch and toward the White House. The result has been among other things, a virtual ballooning of the public image of the Presidency to the point that, in this century, the White House occupant has often eclipsed other branches of government in the public eye. It has worked both as a source of action and initiative and as a source of news and focus of major governmental interest.

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and on our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com), the results of these conversations. This oral history is with Douglas Futuyma, professor emeritus of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University, in Stony Brook, New York. He previously served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Note: Both the text and audio versions have been edited for clarity and length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and in our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com), the results of these conversations. This oral history is with Dr. Judith Weis of Rutgers University. She previously served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Note: Both the text and audio versions have been edited for clarity and length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and in our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com), the results of these conversations. This oral history is with Gregory Anderson, who is with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He previously served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Note: Both the text and audio versions have been edited for clarity and length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a renaissance in the study of how the backgrounds of individual leaders affect foreign policy outcomes. Donald Trump's presidency highlights the limits of this approach. Trump's psychology is so unique, and so akin to that of a small child, that studying his background alone is insufficient to explain his decision-making. The evidence for this characterization of Trump's leadership comes not from his political opponents, but his allies, staffers and subordinates. Trump's lack of impulse control, short attention span and frequent temper tantrums have all undercut his effectiveness as president as compared to his predecessors. Nonetheless, the 45th president helps to clarify ongoing debates in American politics about the relative strength of the presidency as an institution. In particular, the powers of the presidency have become so enhanced that even comparatively weak and inexperienced leaders can execute dramatic policy shifts. The formal checks on presidential power, from the legislative, judicial and executive branches have all eroded. Similarly, the informal checks on the presidency had also degraded before Trump's inauguration. This article uses Trump's presidency—and his severe limitations as a decision-maker—to highlight the ways in which even a weak leader can affect change by holding a powerful office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and in our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com), the results of these conversations. This fourth oral history is with Dr. Susan Stafford, professor and dean emerita at the University of Minnesota. She previously served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Note: Both the text and audio versions have been edited for clarity and length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and in our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com), the results of these conversations. This second oral history is with Dr. Kent Holsinger, board of trustees distinguished professor of biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. He previously served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Their Own Words chronicles the stories of scientists who have made great contributions to their fields, particularly within the biological sciences. These short oral histories provide our readers a way to learn from and share their experiences. Each month, we will publish in the pages of BioScience and in our podcast, BioScience Talks (http://bioscienceaibs.libysn.com), the results of these conversations. This first oral history is with Dr. Rita Colwell, a distinguished environmental microbiologist and scientific administrator, who previously served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Note: Both the text and audio versions have been edited for clarity and length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the influence of religious faith on modern wartime Presidents. Topics discussed include relationship between a president's religious faith and politics; connections between presidents' faith and politics in wartime; and faith of U.S. presidents during pivotal modern conflicts like World War I, World War II and Cold War.

This paper investigates how North Korean behaviour towards both the United States and South Korea is influenced by the popularity of the American President. The study applies theories relating to strategic conflict avoidance and signalling to suggest that the American President is able to demonstrate a willingness to use force when he is unpopular and as such is better able to coerce Pyongyang. Using a time-series model, I demonstrate that the North Koreans become more cooperative towards the United States in response to decreases in presidential popularity and increasing levels of US inflation. However, the study also shows that the North Koreans do not alter their behaviour towards the South Koreans in response to low American President Popularity ratings. The research, therefore, suggests that the North Koreans believe that the United States would be unable to launch a diversionary attack in response to North Korean behaviour towards the South. This study provides a clear support for the strategic avoidance of conflict hypothesis and suggests that the American Presidents are best able to coerce North Korea when they are unpopular at home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan has been widely considered a flagrant breach of international law. This illegal act gives reason to examine the relationship between the United States under President Trump and international law more generally. Unlike its predecessors, the Trump administration has not just violated international law whenever U.S. economic, political, or strategic interests demanded it to do so, it has rather challenged international law and its institutions as such, and has actively undermined them. The attitude of the Trump administration towards international law and its institutions is marked by an unparalleled contempt or disdain. This article delivers a powerful "J'accuse" against this international law nihilism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sender, who is either good or bad, wishes to look good at an exogenous deadline. Sender privately observes if and when she can release a public flow of information about her private type. Releasing information earlier exposes to greater scrutiny, but signals credibility. In equilibrium bad Sender releases information later than good Sender. We find empirical support for the dynamic predictions of our model using data on the timing of U.S. presidential scandals and U.S. initial public offerings. In the context of elections, our results suggest that October Surprises are driven by the strategic behaviour of bad Sender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US presidents—working through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)—influence administrative agencies by directing agencies to modify their regulatory policy proposals before finalization. We identify two competing hypotheses from the literature to explain this presidential intervention. First, some scholars hypothesize that presidents are more likely to change proposals when the submitting agency's political ideology differs from the president's. Second, others argue that presidents are more likely to correct ideologically extreme agencies of either political orientation. These claims have not been adequately investigated quantitatively. We study almost 1,500 final regulations reviewed by OIRA between 2005 and 2011. In the end, neither hypothesis garners support. Instead, we demonstrate that regulations proposed by more liberally oriented agencies are more likely to be changed—and the content of the rules changed to a greater degree—than those proposed by other agency types. Those results suggest a provocative third possibility: presidentially directed deregulation through OIRA review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report on U.S. president Donald Trump's norm-shattering rhetorical signature. They say Trump's rhetoric deviates from that of his predecessors and constitute a double-edged rhetorical identity or signature that certified his authenticity as a change candidate. The rhetorical signature of Trump distinguishing his mode of reasoning and expression from his predecessors.