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Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Keywords
Ronald Reagan, SDI, Soviet Union, Foreign Policy, Reversal, Security Dilemma
Department
Political Science
Major
Political Science
Abstract
The Reagan administration’s Soviet policy shifted markedly in January 1984, when President Reagan giving a speech speaking of his desire to cooperate with the Soviet Union, working directly with Soviet leaders, achieving arms reduction treaties, and leaving behind the hardline approach used in the first three years of his presidency. This paper examines the role the Strategic Defense Initiative played in sparking this policy change, framing it as a security dilemma. Though archival research was impossible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, already published materials are examined, and counterfactual analysis is used to examine SDI’s role in the policy change called the Reagan Reversal, and to explore whether the Reversal was a change in policy, or part of the administration’s “quiet diplomacy” plan all along something debated in the relevant literature. SDI is found to be a clear example of a security dilemma, and one of several events which caused the reversal, and counterfactual analysis shows that the Reversal was a change in policy and not part of the plan of “quiet diplomacy”.
Faculty Mentor
Dan Caldwell
Funding Source or Research Program
Political Science Honors Program
Presentation Session
Session B
Start Date
23-4-2021 2:30 PM
End Date
23-4-2021 2:45 PM
SDI and Its Role in the Reagan Administration’s Soviet Policy Reversal, 1983-1984
The Reagan administration’s Soviet policy shifted markedly in January 1984, when President Reagan giving a speech speaking of his desire to cooperate with the Soviet Union, working directly with Soviet leaders, achieving arms reduction treaties, and leaving behind the hardline approach used in the first three years of his presidency. This paper examines the role the Strategic Defense Initiative played in sparking this policy change, framing it as a security dilemma. Though archival research was impossible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, already published materials are examined, and counterfactual analysis is used to examine SDI’s role in the policy change called the Reagan Reversal, and to explore whether the Reversal was a change in policy, or part of the administration’s “quiet diplomacy” plan all along something debated in the relevant literature. SDI is found to be a clear example of a security dilemma, and one of several events which caused the reversal, and counterfactual analysis shows that the Reversal was a change in policy and not part of the plan of “quiet diplomacy”.