Cold War,Public Opinion,and Foreign Policy Spending Decisions: Dynamic Representation by Congress and the President

Conventional wisdom before the Vietnam War held that public opinion exerted no influence on U.S. foreign policy decisions. Scholars working in Vietnam's aftermath found episodic influence of public opinion on foreign policy, but missing in our understanding were longitudinal examinations of public opinion's influence on foreign policy. A number of post-Vietnam scholars subsequently revealed a long-term relationship between public opinion and defense spending. This study extends that work by analyzing responsiveness to public opinion in different foreign policy arenas by different government institutions, and by accounting for a critical variable not relevant in most previous studies: the end of the cold war. We construct a model explaining the influences of public opinion and the cold war on spending proposals for defense and foreign economic aid by the presidency, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both public opinion and the end of the cold war exert direct influence on defense spending proposals by the presidency, while the Senate and the House respond primarily to public opinion inputs and the partisan composition of the Senate. In the case of foreign economic aid, the cold war's end gives occasion for increasing spending proposals, contrary to the public's expectation that the end of the cold war minimized the need for the U.S. to provide foreign economic assistance.     

冷战期间美国对外“隐蔽行动”问题析论

冷战期间美国对外隐蔽行动是我国学术界研究的新领域,一些基本问题尚未廓清。本文就其中三个问题进行了探讨,认为:秘密活动、间谍活动、隐蔽行动是三个不同概念,彼此既有联系又有区别;美国在对外关系中实施隐蔽行动由来已久,但从美国立国直至二战前,隐蔽行动只是其对外活动中偶然使用的策略手段,而在冷战期间发展到巅峰。冷战期间,隐蔽行动成为美国实现对外政策目标的一个重要战略工具,一项基本政策和基本战略。对于冷战期间美国的对外隐蔽行动,我们应从基本政策、基本战略的角度深入研究。     

Where the Buck Stopped: Harry S Truman and the Cold War

Book reviewed:
Arnold A. Offner. Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War , 1945 – 1953.     

外债与抗日战争的胜利

在日本侵略使大片国土沦陷、面临财源枯竭、发生财政危机的情景下,中国的对外方针是最大限度争取外国的支持与援助,打败日本侵略者,争取抗日战争的胜利。抗战时期国民政府先后向苏联、美国、英国举借了外债。这些外债的特点是借款为易货性质,无折扣,低利率,计息以实际动用部分为限,不用提供担保,仅指定由中国运售某些货物以售价抵付。抗战时期举借的外债,填补了国民政府的财政亏空,缓解了财政危机,补给了战备物资,增强了抗日的军事装备,为长期抗战起了巨大作用。     

冷战后美国外交战略解析

冷战结束后,美国作为当今世界唯一的超级大国,始终没有形成一个一以贯之的全球性外交战略。目前美国外交的主要特征是理想主义与现实主义并存,而后是对外活动的基调;孤立主义与国际主义交织,尽管孤立主义反映了一部分美国人的心理需求,但实用的国际主义在外交活动中仍占据主导地位。     

Science, the Cold War, and the American State

Harvey M. Sapolsky. Science and the Navy: The History of the Office of Naval Research .
Stuart W. Leslie. The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford .
Robert A. Divine. The Sputnik Challenge: Eisenhower's Response to the Soviet Satellite .
D iplomatic H istory , Vol. 20, No. I (Winter 1996).     

Foreign Aid after the Cold War

This paper argues that foreign aid programmes originated as part of the ideological confrontation known as the Cold War and that the motives behind aid were always more political than economic. It is further argued that the economic justifications for foreign aid — filling ‘gaps’ in capital, technology and skills—are suspect and that the economic benefits in terms of long-term development are at best negligible. Turning to the future, foreign aid programmes are bound to change to reflect the new realities of global international relations. Nine specific predictions are made about the future size and composition of aid programmes. The outlook for those who favour aid is not bright, but recent changes in thinking about development suggest that more sell-reliant strategies could well be more beneficial to the poor than conventional aid-supported strategies.