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Why do some military interventions explicitly try to transform the domestic institutions of the states they target, while others do not, instead attempting only to reverse foreign policies or resolve disputes without trying to reshape the internal landscape of the target state?  This book provides a framework for understanding when and why great powers seek to transform foreign institutions and societies through military interventions.  In doing so, it highlights a crucial but often-overlooked factor in international relations: the role of individual leaders.  The book develops and tests a theory that explains how different leaders shape both the decision to intervene and the choice of intervention strategy, especially the degree to which intervention seeks to interfere in the domestic institutions of target states.  Since the role of leaders can be difficult to separate from the influence of international and domestic factors, I test the theory on United States military interventions during the Cold War – a single country within a single international system – using archival and historical sources.  Focusing on the administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, I examine cases of both intervention and non-intervention.  After demonstrating the importance of leaders in this period, I illustrate the theory’s applicability to other historical and contemporary settings, including the early twentieth century, the post-Cold War period, and the Iraq War.

Elizabeth N. Saunders

Department of Political Science, George Washington University

· Information from Cornell University Press

· Amazon.com

· Barnes & Noble

· Featured on C-SPAN’s BookTV

· Roundtable review, H-Diplo/ISSF

 

Book:  Leaders at War: How Presidents Shape Military Interventions

(Cornell University Press, Cornell Studies in Security Affairs Series, 2011)

· 2012 Jervis-Schroeder Best Book Award, APSA International History & Politics Section

 

Articles:

 

· “The Army You Have: The Determinants of Military Mechanization, 1979-2001” (with Todd S. Sechser).  International Studies Quarterly 54(2): 481-511 (June 2010).

 

· “Transformative Choices: Leaders and the Origins of Intervention Strategy.”  International Security 34(2): 119-161 (Fall 2009).

 

· “A New Electorate?  Comparing Preferences and Partisanship between Immigrants and Natives” (with Rafaela Dancygier).  American Journal of Political Science 50(4): 962-981 (October 2006).

 

· Setting Boundaries: Can International Society Exclude "Rogue States"?  International Studies Review 8(1): 23-53 (March 2006).