Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) January 2010 Foreign Policy Mismanagement During American Presidential Transitions Linda Schulte Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd Recommended Citation Schulte, Linda, "Foreign Policy Mismanagement During American Presidential Transitions" (2010). All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). 478. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/478 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY University College International Affairs FOREIGN POLICY MISMANAGEMENT DURING AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITIONS by Linda Elyse Schulte A thesis presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts August 2010 Saint Louis, Missouri ABSTRACT Despite vast literature on American foreign policy and presidential decision- making, little attention has been given to the problems associated with presidential transitions. The American presidential transition period is accompanied by three limitations that threaten the effectiveness of presidential authority. First, presidential authority is unclear in the ambiguity of the transition period. Second, new administrations struggle to incorporate overlapping initiatives and personnel into new policies and priorities. Third, inexperience can cripple a new administration in the first few months of a presidency. These limitations are illustrated by an analysis of two transitional foreign policy crises: the Bay of Pigs crisis overlapping the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations and the Somalia intervention overlapping the Bush and Clinton administrations.