Brakeman or booster? Presidents, ideological polarization, reciprocity, and the politics of US arms control
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12620577 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Florian Böller (0000-0002-0386-4758, University of Kaiserslautern, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 725-748 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1384-5748 • E-ISSN: 1740-3898 |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1057/s41311-021-00330-3 |
| OpenAlex | W3179809856 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 36 |
US arms control policies have shifted frequently in the last 60 years, ranging from the role of a ‘brakeman’ regarding international arms control, to the role of a ‘booster,’ initiating new agreements. My article analyzes the conditions that contribute to this mixed pattern. A crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) evaluates 24 cases of US decisions on international arms control treaties (1963–2021). The analysis reveals that the strength of conservative treaty skeptics in the Senate, in conjunction with other factors, has contributed to the demise of arms control policies since the end of the Cold War. A brief study of the Trump administration’s arms control policies provides case-sensitive insights to corroborate the conditions identified by the QCA. The findings suggest that conservative treaty skeptics contested the bipartisan consensus and thus impaired the ability of the USA to perform its leadership role within the international arms control regime
Arms control · Collective security · Demise · Disarmament · Foreign policy · Ideology · International relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology · Skepticism · Social science · Sociology · Treaty · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Bipartisanship and US Foreign Policy
The crisis of nuclear arms control
Crisis in arms control
Conventional Arms Control Agreements in Europe
Diminishing Partisanship
Conventional arms control and military balance in Europe
Treaty legalization, security interests, and ratification of multilateral disarmament treaties
A Manchurian Candidate? The GOP’s Discourse on the Russian War in Ukraine
Grasping Foreign and Security Policy Change
Conceptualizing the Effects of Polarization for US Foreign Policy Behavior in International Negotiations
Incentives and constraints
The Politics of American Foreign Policy
Back to the Future
Compliance politics
QCA with R
Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences
Multilateralism and the Use of Force
Treaty-Making and Partisan Politics
Senate Reservations to Security Treaties
The Life and Death of International Treaties
Bomb or build? How party ideologies affect the balance of foreign aid and defence spending
America
Senate Influence or Presidential Unilateralism
The President and the Parties’ Ideologies
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Perils of Polarization for U.S. Foreign Policy
The role of U.S. Nuclear weapons after September 11
The Center Still Holds
Back to the Future
Dead Center
President O bama, the Senate, and the Polarized Politics of Treaty Making
The Death of a Treaty
From vicious to virtuous circle
Without Heirs? Assessing the Decline of Establishment Internationalism in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Ratification Premium
Achieving Cooperation under Anarchy
An Opportunity Cost Theory of US Treaty Behavior
When does politics stop at the water’s edge? A QCA of parliamentary consensus on military deployment decisions
Division at the Water’s Edge
Absolute and Relative Gains in International Relations Theory
Standards of Good Practice in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |