Political Science Quarterly

Issue 114, No. 1 (Spring 1999)

Abstracts

• Defining Moment: The Threat and Use of Force in American Foreign Policy
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  Barry M. Blechman and Tamara Cofman Wittes examine the uses of military threats and military interventions in the Bush and first Clinton administrations. Based on case studies and interviews with U.S. decision makers, they conclude that domestic and international political constraints are preventing U.S. leaders from making threats decisive enough to persuade foreign leaders to comply with U.S. demands.

• Impeachment Politics in the 1998 Congressional Elections

  Gary C. Jacobson analyzes the 1998 U.S. congressional elections to determine why voters strongly endorsed the political status quo despite the president’s involvement in a scandal that led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives.

• Public Support for Peacekeeping in Lebanon and Somalia: Assessing the Casualties Hypothesis

  James Burk challenges the hypothesis that public support for peacekeeping missions vanishes once casualties are taken. He identifies logical problems with the underlying theory and shows that its empirical predictions are not supported in the critical cases of Lebanon and Somalia.

• Origins of the Fourth Amendment

  Leonard W. Levy discusses English and American history to determine the sources and development of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment barring unreasonable searches and seizures. He concludes that general warrants and warrantless searches were the norm until the American Revolution, when specific warrants began to emerge, especially in Massachusetts.

• Lessons from Russia’s Protracted Transition from Communist Rule

  Michael Mcfaul explains why Russia’s change from communist rule has been so protracted and conflictual in comparison with other democratic transitions. He focuses on the strategic interaction of individual actors, rather than cultural or historical factors, to build an explanation for Russia’s troubled transition.

• A Review Essay of H.R. McMaster’s Dereliction of Duty

  James J. Wirtz reviews H.R. McMaster’s Dereliction of Duty, which argues that the Joint Chiefs of Staff failed to devise an effective strategy in Vietnam. He questions McMaster’s claim that the Joint Chiefs quickly recognized that U.S. forces had only limited prospects for success in Southeast Asia and failed to inform the Johnson administration about their reservations concerning American military intervention in Southeast Asia.

 

Book Reviews

• Bengio, Ofra, Saddam’s Word: Political Discourse in Iraq
  Reviewed by F. Gregory Gause III
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• Rabinovich, Itamar, The Brink of Peace: The Israeli-Syrian Negotiations
  Reviewed by William B. Quandt

• Lefever, Ernest W., America’s Imperial Burden: Is the Past Prologue?
  Reviewed by Tony Smith

• O’Hanlon, Michael, How to Be a Cheap Hawk: The 1999 and 2000 Defense Budgets
  Reviewed by Randy Willoughby
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• Solnick, Steven L., Stealing the State: Control and Collapse in Soviet Institutions
  Reviewed by Leonid Polishchuk

• Alexseev, Mikhail A., Without Warning: Threat Assessment, Intelligence, and Global Struggle
  Reviewed by Robert Jervis

• Lieven, Anatol, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power
  Reviewed by Laura V. Swartz

• Levesque, Jacques, The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe
  Reviewed by John T. Ishiyama

• Yang, Benjamin, Deng: A Political Biography
  Reviewed by June Teufel Dreyer

• Sigal, Leon D., Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea
  Reviewed by Victor D. Cha

• Sheng, Michael M., Battling Western Imperialism: Mao, Stalin, and the United States
  Reviewed by Steven M. Goldstein

• Peeler, John, Building Democracy in Latin America
  Reviewed by Gerardo L. Munck

• Nathan, Andrew J., China’s Transition
  Reviewed by Minxin Pei

• Zakaria, Fareed, From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America’s World Role
  Reviewed by Peter Trubowitz

• Blight, James G., Peter Kornbluh, eds., Politics of Illusion: The Bay of Pigs Invasion Reexamined
  Reviewed by Robert A. Divine

• Kriesberg, Louis, Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution
  Reviewed by Roy Licklider

• Hudson, Miles and John Stanier, War and the Media: A Random Searchlight
  Reviewed by John J. Smee

• Diehl, Paul F. , ed., The Dynamics of Enduring Rivalries
  Reviewed by K. J. Holsti

• Cohen, Robin, Global Diaspora: An Introduction
  Reviewed by Robert C. Smith

• Juviler, Peter, Freedom’s Ordeal: The Struggle for Human Rights and Democracy in Post-Soviet States
  Reviewed by Michael Urban

• Brinkley, Douglas, The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House
  Reviewed by Erwin Hargrove
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• Bowie, Robert R. and Richard H. Immerman, Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy
  Reviewed by Meena Bose

• Barkey, Henri J. and Graham E. Fuller, eds., Turkey’s Kurdish Question
  Reviewed by Michael M. Gunter

• Cameron, Maxwell A. and Philip Mauceri, eds., The Peruvian Labyrinth: Polity, Society, Economy
  Reviewed by Jo-Marie Burt

• Landes, David S., The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Nations Are So Rich and Some So Poor
  Reviewed by Susan Rose-Ackerman

• Janoski, Thomas, Citizenship and Civil Society
  Reviewed by David Fagelson

• Katz, Richard S., Democracy and Elections
  Reviewed by Mark P. Jones

• Shull, Steven A., Presidential-Congressional Relations: Policy and Time Approaches
  Reviewed by Jay P. Greene

• Reed, Christopher Robert, The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910-1966
  Reviewed by Desiree S. Pedescleaux

• Klehr, Harvey, John Earl Haynes, and Kyrill M. Anderson, The Soviet World of American Communism
  Reviewed by David Plotke

• Farole, Jr., Donald J., Interest Groups and Judicial Federalism
  Reviewed by Barbara Yarnold

• Amenta, Edwin, Bold Relief: Institutional Politics and the Origins of Modern American Social Policy
  Reviewed by Bartholomew H. Sparrow

• Baumgartner and Frank R. and Beth L. Leech, Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in Politics and in Political Science
  Reviewed by Ken W. Kollman