Author Roman Popadiuk served in the Bush White House from 1989 to 1992 as deputy assistant to the president and deputy press secretary for foreign affairs. In that capacity, he was closely involved with many of the day-to-day decisions of the administration during a momentous period that saw the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the rise of a new global coalition, the curbing of a dictator’s expansionist policies in the Middle East, and shifting domestic, economic, and political currents. In this important volume, Popadiuk examines the ways in which the personal leadership style of George Bush influenced the formation and execution of policy. Popadiuk composes a mosaic of events, quotations, and observations that yield a broad view of the ways in which a president’s personal qualities and philosophies impinge upon leadership options. General readers and public service professionals will find The Leadership of George Bush informative and enlightening, and scholars of the presidency and public policy will discover new avenues for research on both the Bush administration and executive leadership and policy.

Valenty, Feldman, and their contributors challenge the current state of political leadership studies by offering a variety of analytical methods from scholars around the world. While focused on American political leadership, the different approaches and vantage points offer fresh insights of the roles of cultural and political context, including the historical circumstance, environmental factors, and socialization agents that affect and shape American political leadership and performance. The highly unusual and valuable approach includes multidisciplinary perspectives with contributors from the fields of political science, political psychology, philosophy, sociology, and economics. Scholars, students, and researchers from a variety of disciplines will find the evaluations of the interaction between personality, leadership, decision making, and context invaluable.

Between his inauguration and September 11, 2001, George W. Bush's presidency appeared to lack focus. The rhetoric of the campaign trail did not readily translate into concrete policies and a closely divided Congress restrained executive action. The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, however, changed all of that. In their aftermath, Bush emerged as a strong, decisive leader with a deep sense of purpose and certainty that inspired many Americans, even as it alienated much of the rest of the world. In The George W. Bush Presidency: An Early Assessment, noted presidential scholar Fred I. Greenstein brings together a distinguished group of political scientists to consider the first two-and-a-half years of the George W. Bush presidency, from his leadership style and political ethos to his budgetary and foreign policies to his relationship with Congress, the electorate, and the American public. This balanced and timely volume concludes with an invaluable insider's view of the president and his administration by John J. DiIulio, the first Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Contributors: Richard A. Brody, Ivo Daalder, John J. Dilulio, Jr., John Fortier, Hugh Heclo, Karen M. Hult, Gary Jacobson, Charles O. Jones, James Lindsay, Norman Ornstein, and Allen Schick

A president who distances himself from stagecraft will find himself upstaged. George H. W. Bush sought to “stay the course” in terms of policy while distancing himself from the public relations strategies employed during the administration of Ronald Reagan, his predecessor. But Bush discovered during his one-term presidency that a strategy of policy continuity coupled with mediocre communication skills “does not make for a strong public image as an effective and active leader in the White House", as author and scholar Lori Cox Han demonstrates in A Presidency Upstaged. Incorporating extensive archival research from the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University—including documents only recently available through requests made under the Freedom of Information Act—Han thoroughly examines the public presidency of George H. W. Bush. Han analyzes how communication strategies, relationships with the press, and public opinion polling shaped and defined his image as a leader. The research for this study also includes content analysis of press coverage (both print and television) and major public addresses during the Bush administration. "Lori Cox Han skillfully uses archival materials, interviews and leading academic studies to present a thorough analysis of George H.W. Bush's public presidency. Her book is a valuable addition to the literature on presidential communications, media, and politics, and also stands as a very useful resource on the events of the first Bush presidency."-Mark Rozell, professor of Public Policy, George Mason University and author, Power and Prudence

Presents a collection of portraits taken by the White House photographers during the first four years of George W. Bush's presidency, covering both historical events and private moments.

The Presidency of George W. Bush is the first balanced academic study to analyze the entirety of his presidency—domestic, social, economic, and national security policies—as well as the administration’s response to 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror. In so doing, John Robert Greene argues persuasively that the judgment of most scholars—that the Bush administration was a complete failure—has been made in haste and without the benefit of primary sources. This book is the first scholarly work to make wide use of the documents at the George W. Bush Presidential Library, many of which have only recently been made available to researchers through the Freedom of Information Act. John Robert Greene offers a balanced assessment and nuanced conclusions supported by documentary evidence. Yet in doing so he does not absolve the Bush administration of its shortcomings. The Presidency of George W. Bush shows that the administration could be vindictive, as demonstrated by the Plame Wilson affair and the firing of the US attorneys. It all too often moved too slowly, as shown by the National Security Council’s lethargic handling of terrorism pre-9/11, the failed attempt to revise Social Security, and the sluggish reaction to Hurricane Katrina. It was an administration that accepted, and acted on, the highly suspect theory of the unitary presidency as advocated by Dick Cheney and accepted by the president. On the other side of the balance sheet, however, the evidence also makes it eminently clear that the Bush administration was responsible for many positive achievements: No Child Left Behind set the nation on the road toward affecting serious educational reform. In healthcare reform, the Bush administration both strengthened the Medicare system and extended its benefits for millions of Americans. And Bush did more to combat the worldwide scourge of AIDS, particularly in Africa, than any other president. In sum, the actions of this presidency continue to affect the presidencies of each of his successors as well as the trajectory of world history to the present day.

Foreign policy success or failure is often attributed to the role of leadership. This volume explores the relationship between President George W. Bush's leadership, the administration's stated belief in the power of ideas (and the ideas of power) and its approach to the war on terror. Drawing on the international expertise of ten American foreign policy and security specialists, this incisive and timely book combines theoretical perspectives on political leadership with rigorous empirical analysis of selected aspects of the Bush administration's post 9/11 foreign policy. As a result, this book sheds considerable light not just on the limited impact of President Bush's war on terror strategy, but also, more importantly, on why key ideas underpinning the strategy, such as US global primacy and pre-emptive war, largely failed to gel in a globalizing world.