see url:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/10/president-trump-maybe-fire-and-fury-threats-against-north-korea-werent-tough-enough/555836001/
Quote<<<
Guam's position in the Pacific ocean makes it a key strategic point for U.S.
military planning. USA TODAY
The president's comments come two days after he made an unusually bellicose
threat to unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea if the rogue nation persists
in threatening the United States. "North Korea best not make any more threats
to the United States," Trump said Tuesday. "They will be met with fire and fury
like the world has never seen."
In the history of presidential threats, that language was "off the charts,"
said B. Dan Wood, a Texas A&M University professor who has catalogued 4,269
presidential threats against 19 countries for his book Presidential Saber
Rattling: Causes and
Consequences<http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=1139415824>.
"(It) won't get him anywhere but an increasing escalation and increasing
hostility. It has been and always will be a failed strategy."
Indeed, North Korea's top general escalated those threats, saying this week he
was drawing up plans to attack the U.S. territory of Guam with four ballistic
missiles.
To this, Trump said that if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "does something in
Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody’s seen before, what will
happen in North Korea."
"That's not a dare. It's a statement," he said. >>>End of Quote.
see url: see url:
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=1139415824
Quote<<
The founders of the American republic believed presidents should be wise and
virtuous statesmen consistently advocating community interests when conducting
American foreign policy. Yet the most common theoretical model used today for
explaining the behavior of politicians is grounded in self-interest, rather
than community interest. This book investigates whether past presidents acted
as noble statesmen or were driven by such self-interested motivations as
re-election, passion, partisanship, media frenzy and increasing domestic
support. The book also examines the consequences for the nation of presidential
behavior driven by self-interest. Between 1945 and 2008, presidents issued
4,269 threats to nineteen different countries. Professor B. Dan Wood evaluates
the causes and consequences of these threats, revealing the nature of
presidential foreign policy representation and its consistency with the
founding fathers' intentions.
• Assesses the nature of American presidential representation in the area of
foreign policy • Challenges common international relations theories which argue
that leaders' foreign policy behavior is driven primarily by the international
system, signaling or diversionary tactics • Demonstrates that although
presidents benefit domestically from making threats, the US suffers economic
costs of ineffective foreign policy
Contents
1. Presidential saber rattling in the early American republic; 2. Presidential
saber rattling and presidential representation; 3. Measuring presidential saber
rattling; 4. The causes of presidential saber rattling; 5. The domestic
consequences of presidential saber rattling; 6. The foreign policy consequences
of presidential saber rattling; 7. The Bush war on terror and presidential
foreign policy representation; 8. Wisdom, virtue, and presidential foreign
policy representation.
Reviews
'Students of the presidency have given immense attention to presidential public
rhetoric and presidents going public, but rarely have studied a president's
foreign policy rhetoric. B. Dan Wood, one of our most respected presidency
scholars, does so in Presidential Saber Rattling. Not only does Wood develop
the concept of presidential saber rattling, but he meticulously collects and
analyzes more than 50 years of such presidential rhetoric. And he reminds us
that saber rattling is an important form of presidential policy making. [This
book] is destined to become a classic and to stimulate future research.'
Jeffrey E. Cohen, author of The President's Legislative Policy Agenda, 1789–2002
'Rich in historical case studies and data analyses, Presidential Saber Rattling
casts new light on the reasons presidents use bellicose foreign policy rhetoric
and on the consequences of such rhetoric domestically and internationally. This
book will be essential reading for students of American politics and United
States foreign policy.' John R. Freeman, University of Minnesota
'This book tackles the big questions of the causes and consequences of
presidential saber rattling. It introduces impressive new data and careful
analysis to provide [a] terrific new insight into this aspect of presidential
decision making.' David E. Lewis, Vanderbilt University
'Presidential Saber Rattling makes important contributions to literatures on
both democratic representation and the role of domestic politics in military
policy making. It also opens many doors for future research at the intersection
of American politics and international relations scholarship.' Douglas Kriner,
Congress and the Presidency>>>End of Quote
Food for thought,
Dougie.
