| Do foreign policymakers have to "sell" their favored policies to generate both mass and elite acceptance? This work coalesces research on political communication, foreign policy, the presidency, and public opinion in showing how presidents promote their foreign policies to the public and details the effects of these efforts. Presidents largely promote their foreign policies through the prisms of a handful of recurring "themes," and then "package" these themes into cohesive arguments ready for mass consumption. Though such a rhetorical strategy is certainly crucial, its value as an instrumental tool is mainly dependent upon controlling the flow of argumentative information available to the public via the mass media. In short, more than just "good" or "bad" news matter---policy arguments matter and have real political effects. Policy promotion affects not only the obvious, public attitudes, but also influences the success or failure of foreign policies and even helps shape policy choices. Finally, these effects are shown over the breadth of the post-war era and across a variety of issue areas (crisis cases, non-crisis conflict policies, nuclear arms initiatives, and international trade cases). |
