Suchergebnisse

In recent years, numerous commentators have maintained that an Iraq syndrome (or Afghanistan syndrome, or both) will inhibit U.S. foreign policy and reduce the leeway U.S. presidents have to use force overseas. To assess the plausibility of those predictions -- and the validity and scope of war-weariness theory -- this article provides a thorough examination of how the Korean War influenced subsequent U.S. decisions regarding the use of military force during the Dien Bien Phu crisis in 1954 and the first offshore islands confrontation with the People's Republic of China in 1955. The analysis suggests that military quagmires (such as Korea) are likely to exert only minor influence on great powers' subsequent decisions on whether to use military force but are much more likely to influence how great powers do so. Adapted from the source document.

This research looks at redistricting in terms of the partisan competitiveness of U.S. House election districts by creating a measure of partisan competitiveness based on the 1988 presidential election results for the two major parties. Nationwide, regional, and state means of district partisan competitiveness are computed for pre‐ and post‐1990 congressional districts, and changes in those means are analyzed. This method holds constant all other factors besides redistricting. Post‐1990 districts are less competitive between the two major parties than pre‐1990 districts, despite predictions to the contrary. A regression model, predicting states' change in mean district partisan competitiveness, shows that states required to preclear their election districts under the Voting Rights Act and states gaining from reapportionment decline in mean district partisan competitiveness to a statistically significant degree. Surprisingly, one‐party control of redistricting is associated with increased competitiveness to a statistically significant degree.

We investigate whether the decision to experiment with novel policies is influenced by electoral incentives. Our empirical setting is the U.S. welfare reform in 1996, which marked the most dramatic shift in social policy since the New Deal. We find that electoral incentives matter: governors with strong electoral support are less likely to experiment with policies than governors with little electoral support. Yet, governors who cannot be reelected experiment more than governors striving for reelection. The importance of electoral incentives is robust to controlling for governor ideology, voter preferences for redistribution, the influence of the legislature, or for learning among states. A comparison of the role of governor ideology and electoral incentives reveals that both contribute about equally to policy experimentation.

The work addresses the issue of the geostrategic situation of Latvia in relation to Russia's foreign policy, which is important for security in the Baltic Sea region. The work uses literary, historical and systemic methods of analysis. The aim of the work is to present the geostrategic position of Latvia. A historical analysis was undertaken indicating the causes of the current geostrategic situation of the country. The conditions and goals of the Russian foreign policy in the Baltic Sea basin and the strategic goals of actors involved in the region of NATO, the EU, the Russian Federation and Latvia were indicated. The main problems of the geostrategic location include cyber-attacks, disinformation campaigns conducted by the Russian media and a real threat to the integrity of the state posed by the Russian inhabitants of the country. It was decided that the Russian population could be used as a tool of pressure on the country's authorities, especially since the Russian minority, constituting approximately 26% of Latvia's population, can create its own parties and demand its rights, including demands for autonomy. The forecast of changes assumes that this problem will increase as Latvia struggles with demographic complications. It can be concluded that the smaller the numerical ratio of Latvians to Russians, the more difficult it will be for them to maintain their own statehood in a potential conflict situation with Russia. This is currently the most serious issue in Latvia's security policy.