In the Current Issue

Volume 134 - Number 4 - Winter 2019–20

Articles

The Soviet Legacy in Russian Foreign Policy
Mark Kramer explores formal and informal aspects of the Soviet legacy in the making and nature of Russian foreign policy. He argues that the Russian government has departed from Soviet foreign policy on few matters, but most of it shows a good deal of continuity.

Striking a Blow for Unity? Race and Economics in the 2010 New Orleans Mayoral Election
MAREK STEEDMAN, ILIYAN ILIEV, Marcus Coleman, and Allan McBride analyze the 2010 New Orleans mayoral election. They find that racial, economic, and partisan context affected voting behavior. They argue that analytical approaches that account for the effects of social context on political behavior are important to understanding urban politics.

Process Learning in Foreign Policy: From the Bay of Pigs to the Berlin Crisis
Rebecca Friedman Lissner introduces the concept of foreign policy “process learning” and applies it to a comparative case study of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Berlin crisis in the first year of the Kennedy administration. She argues that under certain conditions leaders can and do learn from foreign policy failures.

How Foreign Policy Shapes American National Identity
PAUL T. McCARTNEY discusses how foreign policy has shaped American national identity. He argues that American national identity has changed since the nation’s founding and that foreign policy contributed to this evolution.

The Symbolic Politics of Poverty in the United States: A Review Essay
Elizabeth Rigby reviews two recently published books on the politics of poverty in the United States: Lawrence J. McAndrews’s The Presidents and the Poor: America Battles Poverty 1964-2017 and Kristina C. Miler’s Poor Representation: Congress and the Politics of Poverty in the United States. Rigby argues that the books highlight that while policymakers continue calls for action on the issue of poverty, the actual policy response has been limited and the problem of poverty remains largely unsolved.

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