Presidential succession and United States-Latin American relations.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the consequences of presidential change for American foreign policy toward Latin America during the post World War II era. It focuses upon five dimensions of inter-American relations and analyzes the effects of presidential succession upon these foreign policy behaviors: Economic and military aid, bilateral international agreements, symbolic attention toward Latin America, and political use of force in Latin America. Using time-series analysis, this research tests the hypothesis that foreign policy should be largely immune from the effects of changing presidencies. The empirical findings lend qualified support to this expectation. The political use of force appears largely immune from the influence of presidential succession. The allocation of economic aid as well as the creation of international agreements and symbolic attention all appear minimally susceptible to presidential change. Military aid, on the other hand, is noticeably sensitive to fluctuations in leadership.