Kenneth W. Thompson

This volume in the Virginia Papers series emphasizes perennial concepts and problems of the presidency such as principles of statecraft, background to leadership, organizing the government for policymaking, communicating with national and international publics, the international setting, and the public philosophy. Contributors: Alberto Coll, Patrick Butler, David L. DiLeo, Chase Untermeyer, Paul Taylor, Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., Inis L. Claude, Jr., Hugh Sidey, and Kenneth W. Thompson. Co-published with The Miller Center.

This is the first volume in a planned series, addressing the milieu of arms control in the nuclear age, and the decision-making style of US presidents. It also focuses on arms control agreements; ratification of treaties by the Senate; the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; and non-proliferation.

This volume explores subjects such as the rise of modern nationalism and its potentially destructive nature in regard to world order; arms control and disarmament in the nuclear age; and the problems of national self-determination and national minorities. They also take up the issue of human rightsówho is responsible for the promotion and enforcement of rights: the individual states and their citizens, or the international community? Contributors: William D. Jackson, James Piscatori, Moorhead Wright, W. David Clinton III, Lowell Gustafson, J.C. Garnett, Brian Porter, Michael Ross Fowler, Julie Marie Bunck, Robert Williams, Brian E. Klunk, Reed M. Davis, William R. Stevenson, Jr., Robert DeVries, Kenneth W. Thompson, Margaret P. Karnes, Harold K. Jacobson, and Inis L. Claude, Jr. Co-published with The Miller Center of Public Affairs.

In Fathers of International Thought, renowned foreign affairs scholar Kenneth W. Thompson returns to the writings of sixteen thinkers in order better to understand the issues and problems that recurrently beset global politics. A companion volume to Masters of International Thought, in which Thompson analysed the thinking of eighteen leading twentieth-century political theorists, Fathers of International Thought traces the ideas of earlier philosophers, theologians, and legal and political theorists who provided the foundations for the present century's master thinkers.Thompson begins by discussing the relevance of classical political philosophy to the field of modern international relations theory. He then presents lucid essays on sixteen of the most brilliant minds from Plato through the nineteenth century, focusing on the importance of their thought in contemporary international affairs. Besides Plato, the classical thinkers, whom Thompson refers to as the fathers, include Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Niccolò Machiavelli, Grotius, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx.According to Thompson, the interrelatedness of earlier and recent thought is undeniable for such concepts as authority, justice, community, regimes, and power. He shows how the ideas of the fathers have application to the current international scene, as with events in Eastern Europe and the Persian Gulf area, and political upheaval on the African continent. The lesson for policy makers, students of politics and international relations, and, indeed, all citizens is that a comprehensive philosophical approach to world politics can lead to the rediscovery of enduring political principles and our place in history. By considering the insights of earlier thinkers, decision makers may come to recognise most present-day problems as perennial issues, however changing the context. Understanding the classics may help them avoid unsuccessful patterns in foreign policy. An introductory survey of early political philosophers and their relevance to our times is sorely needed by students and practitioners of international politics. Fathers of International Thought, by a man Foreign Affairs described as ""one of the best teachers still active from the postwar generation of scholars that developed the discipline of international relations,"" will be of lasting value in meeting that need.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Charles Evans Hughes and the Campaign of 1916, Betty Glad; John W. Davis and 1924, William H. Harbaugh; Personal Grieving and Political Defeat: The Case of Calvin Coolidge, C. Knight Aldrich; Lessons from the 1932 Reelection Campaign of Herbert Hoover, George Nash; Wendell Wilkie, 1940, William Wemple and Kenneth W. Thompson; Thomas Dewey and the Campaigns of 1944 and 1948, The Honorable Herbert Brownell; Adlai Stevenson and the Campaigns of 1952 and 1956, Porter McKeever; Hubert H. Humphrey and the Campaign of 1968, Norman Sherman; Walter Mondale and the 1984 Campaign, Steven M. Gillon; Concluding Observations, Kenneth W. Thompson. Co-published with the Miller Center.

This work presents perspectives by experts during three different time periods-from 1989 to 1990, in 1991, and in 1992-illustrating the depth of the changes that have taken place in the former Soviet Union. Contents: Change in the Soviet Union: Political Dynamics in the Gorbachev Era; Gorbachev and Change in Soviet Foreign Policy; Reagan's Foreign Policy and Soviet-American Relations; The Rhetoric and Reality of Change in Soviet Domestic and Foreign Policy; The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; What Went Wrong with Perestroika?; The Disintegration of the U.S.S.R. and American Foreign Policy; The Post-Soviet Economy and the World; The Influence of Political Culture on Government and Society; The Commonwealth of Independent States and the Post-Soviet Successor States; and Russia's Current Perception of America. Contributors: Paul B. Stephan, Joseph L. Nogee, Sterling J. Kernek, George M. Seignious II, Malcolm Toon, Marshall I. Goldman, Allen C. Lynch, Leonid I. Abalkin, Maurice Friedberg, Paul A. Goble, and Vladimir O. Pechatnov. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Charles Evans Hughes and the Campaign of 1916, Betty Glad; John W. Davis and 1924, William H. Harbaugh; Personal Grieving and Political Defeat: The Case of Calvin Coolidge, C. Knight Aldrich; Lessons from the 1932 Reelection Campaign of Herbert Hoover, George Nash; Wendell Wilkie, 1940, William Wemple and Kenneth W. Thompson; Thomas Dewey and the Campaigns of 1944 and 1948, The Honorable Herbert Brownell; Adlai Stevenson and the Campaigns of 1952 and 1956, Porter McKeever; Hubert H. Humphrey and the Campaign of 1968, Norman Sherman; Walter Mondale and the 1984 Campaign, Steven M. Gillon; Concluding Observations, Kenneth W. Thompson. Co-published with the Miller Center.

In this work, political figures who worked closely with Ronald Reagan examine the man as a leader. They explore Reagan's philosophy of leadership, his actual practice of leadership, his political instincts and the problems of leadership.

This volume provides a synthesis of earlier Miller Center studies on presidential transitions. It also evaluates the latest presidential transition from Ronald Reagan to George Bush. It is one of the few if not the only transition study that examines the past and present. Contributors: Tom Wicker, Sir Patrick Moberly, Charles A. Bowsher, James P. Pfiffner, W. David Clinton, and Charles Untermeyer. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

In this informed and comprehensive assessment of current issues in international policies, Kenneth W. Thompson addresses the role that traditions and values play in shaping change and in helping us to understand its implications. He challenges the idea that the enormous changes in contemporary national and international life have rendered the consideration of traditions and values obsolete. Thompson's purpose is to illuminate the problems we face and to set forth general principles directed toward an informing theory on traditions and values as they affect politics and diplomacy, while at the same time warning of the pitfalls and limitations of theory.In the first section of this book, Thompson draws on classical and Judaeo-Christian traditions in defining the relationship between philosophy, religion, and politics. He then examines the application of abstract values to such political realities as national interest, and goes on to consider the question of moral values in international diplomacy and politics.In a series of case studies, Thompson reflects on human rights, disarmament and arms control, and human survival. Maintaining that the implementation of traditions and values is sometimes uniquely the task of the American presidency, he studies the administrations of four postwar presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon, in the light of the executives' attitudes toward ethics and politics. Finally, Thompson considers the implications of national decline and the breakdown of international order for the future of the United States. The vast knowledge of international affairs and the literature of politics that Kenneth W. Thompson brings to this timely and reflective books makes it exceptionally readable as well as intellectually challenging.

The third in the series The American Presidency: Perspectives from Abroad, this book includes perspectives from the Commonwealth, from Europe, and from the Middle East. In the first category, David Butler addresses the Presidency and American Constitutionalism; Ambassador F. Rawdon Dalrymple gives an Australian view of the Presidency; Michael Foot looks at American Presidents past and present; Sir Nivian Stephens surveys constitutions and J.D.B. Miller sums up. Francis H. Heller provides a comparison of the French and American Presidencies while Farhang Rajaee gives the view of the American Presidency from Iran and Ambassador Talcott W. Seelye looks at the Presidency and the Middle East. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

In this first of a two-volume examination of the Cold War, Kenneth Thompson offers a broad and, at the same time, specific account of its history and its historians. Thompson's aim is to find the best framework for understanding how the Cold War originated, what forces and factors produced it, how Soviet and American policies intensified the conflict, and what alternatives were open to the rivals. He evenhandedly sets forth three competing theories of the Cold War, the orthodox, revisionist, and critical/interpretative views, and reveals how the ideological confines of certain interpretations have made for incomplete understanding. Calling upon some of the great thinkers of our century, Thompson shows that orthodox and revisionist historians alike are misled by their exaggerated estimates of national capacity and interests.Volume I follows the course of the Cold War from the end of World War II and America demobilization through the war in Korea. Tracing the influence of the theories on policy makers, Thompson finds missed opportunities and unintentional acts of belligerence during such tense times as the debates over Poland, Iran, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the Berlin Blockade.By joining political history with the theoretical approaches, the author seeks to show that theory and history ought to be conjoined in a study of the Cold War without minimizing the value of each separate outlook. In its widest sense Cold War Theories is about the nature of history, that intricate tapestry that stretches past out limits to see. In discussing the early period in the Cold War, Thompson keeps his eye on possible parallels and differences with the present era marked by the conflicts in Iran and Afghanistan. Throughout his presentation, Thompson keeps in mind that we are entering a new era of intense conflict in the Cold War wherein we can ill afford any form of dogmatism: ""Not only is reality more complex than ideology, but change is the first law of the political universe.

This book explores the provocative question, 'What has been, and will be, the impact of new thinking and developments upon international politics?' The essays discuss the new possibilities resulting from new thinking. These are: the end of the Cold War and the advent of a peaceful, prosperous Europe closely tied to the United States; an invigorated United Nations; a shift of attention to the new challenges posed by patterns of violence in areas of the world divorced from the Cold War; and the prospect of global democratization and greater global economic and ecological health. Essays include: Implications of Soviet New Thinking for International Politics: Clues from Eastern Europe; Remodeling NATO and Europe: Continuity and Change in European Security in the 1990s; Toward a New and Invigorated United Nations; Violent Conflict in the International System of the 1990s; International Economics in the 1990s; Information Revolution and the Shaping of a Democratic Global Order. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

This work is the 7th volume in the Miller Center bicentennial series on Constitutionalism. The contributors examine in several different essays the historical, political and ideological connections among the constitutional experiences of France, Poland and the United States. This study furthers the Miller Center's efforts to examine the United States Constitution and its interaction and interrelationship with other constitutions in the world. Although Poland's constitution was the focus of the book, the approach has been made unique by the fact that the study was not conducted solely through Polish eyes, but rather in relation to the constitutions which, with Poland, share the distinction of being the three oldest constitutions in the world, the French and the U.S.

This work is the sixth volume in the Miller Center Bicentennial Series on Constitutionalism. The contributors examine in several different essays the historical, political, and ideological connections among the constitutional experiences of France, Poland, and the United States. This study furthers the Miller Center's efforts to examine the United States Constitution and its interaction and interrelationship with other constitutions in the world. Although Poland's constitution was the focus of the book, the approach has been made unique by the fact that the study was not conducted solely through Polish eyes, but rather in relation to the constitutions which, with Poland, share the distinction of being the three oldest constitutions in the world, the French and the U.S. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

This volume, the second in the series, brings together experts in politics, law, and medicine and provides an in depth analysis of presidential disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. It addresses the controversial questions which arise with regard to the Constitution and the transfer, withdrawal, and resumption of presidential authority. Also considered is the issue of the interpretation of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. Co-published with the Miller Center.

This volume, the second in the series, brings together experts in politics, law, and medicine and provides an in depth analysis of presidential disability and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. It addresses the controversial questions which arise with regard to the Constitution and the transfer, withdrawal, and resumption of presidential authority. Also considered is the issue of the interpretation of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. Co-published with the Miller Center.

What sets the Carter Presidential Portrait volume apart from other volumes in this series is its concentration on the President and First Lady, Cabinet level officials, certain intangibles such as the nature of the times, accidents and unforeseen events and presidential style and politics. Significantly, this volume is the first in which the President and the First Lady graciously joined in its preparation. Includes essays by Judge Shirley Hufstedler, Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall, Attorney General Griffin Bell, Secretary of Commerce Juanita Kreps, Secretary of Commerce Philip M. Klutznick, Secretary of Agriculture Bob S. Bergland, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Director of the Policy Planning Staff Anthony Lake, Ambassador Donald McHenry, Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, Yale Professor of History Gaddis Smith, and Vice President Walter F. Mondale. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

What sets the Carter Presidential Portrait volume apart from other volumes in this series is its concentration on the President and First Lady, Cabinet level officials, certain intangibles such as the nature of the times, accidents and unforeseen events and presidential style and politics. Significantly, this volume is the first in which the President and the First Lady graciously joined in its preparation. Includes essays by Judge Shirley Hufstedler, Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall, Attorney General Griffin Bell, Secretary of Commerce Juanita Kreps, Secretary of Commerce Philip M. Klutznick, Secretary of Agriculture Bob S. Bergland, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Director of the Policy Planning Staff Anthony Lake, Ambassador Donald McHenry, Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, Yale Professor of History Gaddis Smith, and Vice President Walter F. Mondale. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

This volume delves into Mr. Churchill's approach to arms control and foreign policy. The initial section, 'The Quest for a Coherent Framework,' explores Churchill's philosophical basis for dealing with other powers. Subsequent chapters deal with issues involving his government agencies' conduct of foreign policy, with problems of policy decision-making in a democratic society, and with Churchill's disarmament legacy to the United Kingdom and the world.