Document Type
Thesis
First Faculty Advisor
John Dietrich
Second Faculty Advisor
Emily Copeland
Keywords
President James Carter; President Ronald Reagan; Central America; U.S. Foreign Policy
Publisher
Bryant University
Rights Management
CC 4.0 BY-NC-ND
Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to test the hypothesis that foreign policy objectives result from incentives and pressures created by the international theater at large. These objectvies evolve due to changes in historical context and occasional paradigm shifts in international relations. So, foreign policy objectives exist largely independent from any individual leader and rather emerge from adaptations forced upon states by circumstance. The project is a qualitative structured comparison between Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador during the Carter and Reagan years. It concludes that there is strong evidence to support the hypothesis and secondary claim.
