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.

• Introduction Part One: The Beliefs of Publics and Elites 1. U.S. Leadership Attitudes Toward the Soviet Union, 1976–1988 2. Aggressiveness, Involvement, and Commitment in Foreign Policy Attitudes From Faith to Failure: On the Erosion of Soviet Optimism 3. Part Two: Leaders and Central Decision-making Groups 4. Leaders and Foreign Policy Decision-making 5. Afghanistan, Carter, and Foreign Policy Change: The Limits of Cognitive Models 6. Dealing with Presidential Disability: The Assassination Attempt on Ronald Reagan and the 25th Amendment Part Three: Interest Group and Bureaucratic Politics and Processes 7. Command and Control in Crises: Mechanisms of Indirect Control 8. Avoiding Pathologies in Foreign Policy Decision Groups 9. Cycling Over Berlin: The Deadline and Wall Crises Part Four: Diplomacy and the Use of Force 10. Protracted Foreign Military Intervention: A Structured Focused Comparative Analysis 11. Maintaining Security Systems 12. International Multiple Advocacy in U.S. Foreign Policy