Morton H. Halperin – författare

Noted experts examine America's power to go to war historically and recently, now that the Cold War has ended. They propose ways that the Congress and the president might develop a new working consensus for dealing with the use of military or paramilitary force in the future. This scholarly study of constitutional and statutory proscriptions, UN treaty and international obligations, and judicial restraints is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students, law students, teachers, and professionals concerned with constitutional interpretation, the government's division of power, and war making.

The first edition of Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy is one of the most successful Brookings titles of all time. This thoroughly revised version updates that classic analysis of the role played by the federal bureaucracy—civilian career officials, political appointees, and military officers—and Congress in formulating U.S. national security policy, illustrating how policy decisions are actually made. Government agencies, departments, and individuals all have certain interests to preserve and promote. Those priorities, and the conflicts they sometimes spark, heavily influence the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. A decision that looks like an orchestrated attempt to influence another country may in fact represent a shaky compromise between rival elements within the U.S. government. The authors provide numerous examples of bureaucratic maneuvering and reveal how they have influenced our international relations. The revised edition includes new examples of bureaucratic politics from the past three decades, from Jimmy Carter's view of the State Department to conflicts between George W. Bush and the bureaucracy regarding Iraq. The second edition also includes a new analysis of Congress's role in the politics of foreign policymaking.

The first edition of Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy is one of the most successful Brookings titles of all time. This thoroughly revised version updates that classic analysis of the role played by the federal bureaucracy—civilian career officials, political appointees, and military officers—and Congress in formulating U.S. national security policy, illustrating how policy decisions are actually made. Government agencies, departments, and individuals all have certain interests to preserve and promote. Those priorities, and the conflicts they sometimes spark, heavily influence the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. A decision that looks like an orchestrated attempt to influence another country may in fact represent a shaky compromise between rival elements within the U.S. government. The authors provide numerous examples of bureaucratic maneuvering and reveal how they have influenced our international relations. The revised edition includes new examples of bureaucratic politics from the past three decades, from Jimmy Carter's view of the State Department to conflicts between George W. Bush and the bureaucracy regarding Iraq. The second edition also includes a new analysis of Congress's role in the politics of foreign policymaking.

A front-row memoir of power, war, diplomacy, and dissent from one of the most influential national security insiders of the twentieth century.From the Pentagon Papers to the Nixon White House, from Vietnam and nuclear arms negotiations to civil liberties battles at the ACLU and diplomacy in the Clinton administration, Morton H. Halperin has spent more than half a century at the center of America’s most consequential political and foreign policy struggles.In this sweeping memoir, Halperin pulls readers inside the rooms where history was made—working alongside figures like Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Clark Clifford, and Lyndon Johnson during the height of the Cold War. A brilliant young Harvard scholar who entered government expecting to stay only briefly, Halperin instead became a key architect, critic, and witness to some of the defining crises of modern American power.With remarkable candor and intellectual rigor, Halperin recounts the internal battles over Vietnam strategy, secret bombing campaigns, nuclear arms control, the Pentagon Papers, government surveillance, civil liberties, and the evolving role of American democracy on the world stage. Along the way, he reveals how policy is truly made—not through grand theories alone, but through bureaucracy, personality, moral compromise, and relentless institutional conflict.This insider chronicle of Washington at its most turbulent is the story of a man who moved from idealistic academic to influential policymaker while never abandoning his commitment to democratic accountability and constitutional freedom. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how American foreign policy really works—and what it costs the people who shape it.