Political Leadership in Foreign Policy Manipulating Support across Borders

This book investigates the ways in which political leaders garner support for their goals. In order to gain support for their agendas, leaders may use the international environment to reinforce their version of situations for their audiences at home--creating new alliances, gaining access to economic resources, invoking international law, connecting their nation's situation with one abroad, and rallying to oppose a threat. Using case studies from the Persian Gulf War, the Northern Ireland conflict, post-September 11 Pakistan and the war on terrorism, civil unrest in Zimbabwe, and the transition from apartheid in South Africa, Grove examines the similar set of strategies that many leaders use to support their agendas. How leaders use four specific strategies--broadening audience, buying off, tying hands, and framing threat--across these five cases shows us the mechanisms of political leadership in action. These studies explore not only how the strategies are employed across contexts, but also underscore that the process of political leadership is a two-way street as leaders operate in and change their domesticandinternational environments.

Andrea K. Grove is Associate Professor of Political Science at California State University-Channel Islands.  Dr. Grove’s research interests include foreign policy and conflict resolution, and she conducts field work in Northern Ireland and South Africa. Her work has been published in several professional journals, including International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Studies Review, Political Psychology, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, and International Politics. She received a Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University in 1999 and currently resides in Camarillo, California with her husband Chris Scholl and their son, Ethan.