| This dissertation examines the Bush administration's foreign policy at the end of the Cold War using a beliefs system approach. It contends that despite evidence pressuring the Bush administration to alter its beliefs, the administration continued to hold onto its core beliefs, yet was able to move the Soviet-American relationship forward in a cooperative manner because of its emphasis on personal relations and personal diplomacy. To investigate this contention, the dissertation analyzes the following American policies: conventional arms control; German reunification; the Persian Gulf War; and the fragmentation of the Soviet Union.; The dissertation uses Alexander George's operational code to establish a belief system for the Bush administration and then proceeds to use process tracing to investigate its cases. Throughout, the dissertation promotes the idea of policy-relevant theory. Arguing against simple, single variable models, the dissertation suggests the use of multilevel approaches for the study of foreign policy behavior. |
