Led by Texas A&M researchers, the journal Diplomatic History has published an extensive forum exploring the foreign policy of President George Bush, 41st President of the United States. The topic is the primary focus of the January issue of what is considered the premier academic journal in the field, and features articles by Jeffrey A. Engel of the Bush School and Randy Kluver, director of the Institute for Pacific Asia at Texas A&M University.
“It is rare for such a prestigious journal to devote an issue to a single topic,” said Jeffrey Engel, associate professor and Verlin and Howard Kruse ‘52 Founders Professor, who organized and edited the journal issue through the Bush School’s Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs. Articles include Kluver’s exploration of the national and diplomatic rhetoric of the 1989 Tiananmen crisis, a study of early Russian-American negotiations over NATO expansion, examinations of religion’s role in Bush’s foreign policy, a study of National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, and a study of public diplomacy during the Bush years.
“This forum has been in the works at the journal for the last several years, and the time seemed right—more than 20 years after his inauguration—to produce this comprehensive look at Bush’s policies and their impact, aided by newly available documents and records from the period,” Engel added.
“With some 18 percent of the more than eight million pages of documents from the Bush presidency now declassified, and more coming online, there is clearly much more every day for scholars to review and analyze,” said Engel, “so more remains to be done. This assessment is an important first step.”
