Hand-Off: the Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama

Stephen J. Hadley; Peter D. Feaver; William C. Inboden; Meghan L. O&#039;Sullivan

doi:10.5771/9780815739784

Summary

Hand-Off details the Bush administration’s national security and foreign policy as described at the time in then-classified Transition Memoranda prepared by the National Security Council experts who advised President Bush. Thirty of these Transition Memoranda, newly declassified and here made public for the first time, provide a detailed, comprehensive, and first-hand look at the foreign policy the Bush administration turned over to President Obama. In a postscript to each memorandum, these same experts now in hindsight take a remarkably self- critical look at that Bush foreign policy legacy after more than a dozen years of watching subsequent administrations attempt to deal with the same vexing agenda of threats and opportunities-- China, Russia, Iran, the Middle East, terrorism, proliferation, cyber, pandemics, and climate change—an agenda that still dominates America’s national security and foreign policy.

Hand-Off will be an invaluable resource for scholars, students, policy analysts, and general readers seeking to understand afresh the Bush administration’s foreign policy, particularly in view of the records of the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8157-3977-7
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8157-3978-4
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 744
Product type: Edited Book

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Foreword No access
4. Preface No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 4
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Transition Memorandum: Freedom Agenda No access
  2. Postscript No access
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Transition Memoranda: Dismantling al Qaeda No access
  2. Combating Terrorist Financing and Using Financial Tools to Isolate Rogue Actors No access
  3. Postscript No access
3. 1. Transition Memorandum: Institutionalizing the War on Terror No access
  2. Postscript No access
4. 1. Transition Memorandum: War of Ideas No access
  2. Postscript No access
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Transition Memorandum: Afghanistan No access
  2. Postscript No access
3. 1. Transition Memorandum: Pakistan No access
  2. Postscript No access
4. 1. Transition Memorandum: Iraq No access
  2. Postscript No access
5. 1. Transition Memorandum: Colombia No access
  2. Postscript No access
6. 1. Transition Memorandum: Lebanon No access
  2. Postscript No access
7. 1. Transition Memorandum: Reconstruction and Stabilization Operations No access
  2. Postscript No access
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Transition Memoranda: Counterproliferation Policy No access
  2. Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Terrorism No access
  3. Postscript No access
3. 1. Transition Memorandum: US Efforts to Turn Libya and Dismantle the A. Q. Khan Nuclear Proliferation Network No access
  2. Postscript No access
4. 1. Transition Memorandum: Our Approach to Iran No access
  2. Postscript No access
5. 1. Transition Memorandum: North Korea and Six-Party Talks No access
  2. Postscript No access
6. 1. Transition Memorandum: Missile Defense No access
  2. Postscript No access
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Transition Memoranda: Europe Whole, Free, and at Peace No access
  2. Western Balkans No access
  3. Postscript No access
3. 1. Transition Memorandum: Managing Cooperation/Differences with Russia No access
  2. Postscript No access
4. 1. Transition Memoranda: China Policy No access
  2. East Asian Alliances and Architecture No access
  3. Postscript No access
5. 1. Transition Memorandum: India No access
  2. Postscript No access
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Introduction No access
3. 1. Transition Memorandum: Smart Development No access
  2. Postscript No access
4. 1. Introduction No access
5. 1. Transition Memorandum: President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief No access
  2. Postscript No access
6. 1. Transition Memorandum: The President’s Malaria Initiative No access
  2. Postscript No access
7. 1. Transition Memorandum: Neglected Tropical Diseases No access
  2. Postscript No access
8. 1. Essay: Biodefense and Pandemic Planning No access
9. 1. Introduction No access
10. 1. Transition Memorandum: Africa Conflict Resolution Policy No access
  2. Postscript No access
11. 1. Transition Memorandum: Middle East Peace Process No access
  2. Postscript No access
1. Introduction No access
2. 1. Essay: Cyber Preparedness No access
3. 1. Essay: Climate Change and Clean Development No access
4. 1. Transition Memorandum: Confronting Authoritarian Populism No access
  2. Postscript No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Chapter 30. “An Illuminating Hand-Off,” an essay by Melvyn P. Leffler No access
3. Chapter 31. “Reassessing Bush’s Legacy: What the Transition Memoranda Do (and Don’t) Reveal,” an essay by Hal Brands No access
4. Chapter 32. “Transferring Presidential Power in a Post-9/11 World,” an essay by Martha Joynt Kumar No access
Appendix A. Complete List of Bush Administration National Security Council Transition Memoranda No access Pages 699 - 700
Appendix B. Description of Digital Archive To Be Maintained at SMU No access Pages 701 - 702
Contributing Authors No access Pages 703 - 704
Postscript Authors. Titles Held during the Bush 43 Administration No access Pages 705 - 708
Index No access Pages 709 - 744