| Doctrines have been a prevalent form of foreign policy in American history. What explains their origins? The study addresses this question by examining the Reagan Doctrine, a declared policy which pledged aid to anticommunist guerrillas in the Third World. The case study applies two alternative explanations for the Reagan Doctrine's declaration: "structural realist" theory, focused on the international level of analysis, and "elite beliefs" theory, focusing on individual political leaders and their beliefs.; The study employs structural realism to explain the Reagan Doctrine's declaration. This methodology stresses the international balance of power, international conditions, limits on the government's freedom to make policy, and the U.S. national interest. Sources of the Reagan Doctrine are found both in the international environment as a whole and in the individual countries where the Reagan Administration openly aided insurgents: Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola, and Cambodia.; The elite beliefs perspective, in turn, explains the Reagan Doctrine's origins in terms of leaders ' personal needs, perception (and preconceptions) about world politics, use of historical analogies to understand current problems, and value systems. Applying the tools of elite analysis reveal how Ronald Reagan forged a coalition of two types of conservatives and set its agenda with his rhetoric, which included a call for a "crusade for freedom" in a 1982 address to the British Parliament, and pledges to aid "freedom fighters" in his State of the Union address and a speech to the United Nations in 1985.; The findings indicate that each perspective is necessary to explain the Reagan Doctrine, but neither alone is sufficient. An integrated approach accounting for both international context and beliefs of political elites is needed to explain the sources of the Reagan Doctrine, and by implication, other American doctrines. The applicability of such an integrated approach to other forms of American foreign policy, other nations' doctrines, and world politics generally should be tested in the future research.; The case study suggests more broadly that differing general theories of international relations tend to be mutually exclusive, and perspectives on alternative levels of analysis should be linked together. |
