Does Party Politics Matter? - En hypotesprövande studie om USA
s partipolitiska position till europeiskt säkerhetssamarbete
RepublicansDemocratsAmerican Party PoliticsEDCESDPForeign PolicyPolitical and administrative sciencesStatsvetenskapFörvaltningskunskapLaw and Political Science
In his recent article Professor of International Affairs Charles Kupchan claims that Party Politics has become increasingly important for American Foreign Policy since the end of the Cold War. This assertion makes it valuable to assess how the substance of the Foreign Policy differs between the two American parties in various cases and if this difference is characterized by consistency or by change. In this thesis I examine these Party positions in relation to the European Security Policy.In order to examine this I compare the positions of the Democratic and Republican Parties? policy concerning both the European Defence Community (EDC) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The purpose of this thesis is to examine the hypothesis that the Democratic Party to a higher extent than the Republican Party is more concerned to maintain good relations to Europe respectively EU.The results show that there are small indications that my hypothesis concerning the two parties is valid. Nevertheless it seems as Kupchan's assertion is valid since the administrations? policy diverge more regarding ESDP than EDC.