Dan Caldwell is professor of political science and the chairman of the Council on International Studies at Pepperdine University. He is the author of American-Soviet Relations: From 1947 to the Nixon-Kissinger Grand Design and The Domestic Politics of Arms Control: The SALT II Treaty Ratification Debate. Timothy J. McKeown is associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The author of a number of articles on international political economy, he is also co-author of Organizing Business: Trade Associations in the U.S. and Japan.

• Preface -- Introduction -- The Beliefs of Publics and Elites -- U.S. Leadership Attitudes Toward the Soviet Union, 1976–1988 -- Aggressiveness, Involvement, and Commitment in Foreign Policy Attitudes -- From Faith to Failure: On the Erosion of Soviet Optimism -- Leaders and Central Decision-making Groups -- Leaders and Foreign Policy Decision-making -- Afghanistan, Carter, and Foreign Policy Change: The Limits of Cognitive Models -- Dealing with Presidential Disability: The Assassination Attempt on Ronald Reagan and the 25th Amendment -- Interest Group and Bureaucratic Politics and Processes -- Command and Control in Crises: Mechanisms of Indirect Control -- Avoiding Pathologies in Foreign Policy Decision Groups -- Cycling Over Berlin: The Deadline and Wall Crises -- Diplomacy and the Use of Force -- Protracted Foreign Military Intervention: A Structured, Focused Comparative Analysis -- Maintaining Security Systems -- International Multiple Advocacy in U.S. Foreign Policy