Systemic Interpretations and the National Interest: Presidential `Lessons of Vietnam' and Policy Deliberation

Abstract

In addressing the interplay of international forces and domestic policy, materialist frameworks such as neorealism and neoliberalism emphasize the influence of exogenously given systemic incentives on state and societal choices. However, these approaches are insufficient to the extent that material incentives must be interpreted and shifts in such interpretations may legitimate transformations of state and societal interests. In this article, we therefore offer a constructivist analysis of international and domestic interactions that emphasizes the importance of interpretation to the definition of state and societal interests. We then apply this approach to a study of shifting constructions of the Vietnam War through the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan administrations and argue that these explain variation in definitions of US interests. In the conclusions, we address implications for the purposes of International Relations theory, arguing for a constructivist-pragmatist approach that relaxes distinctions between critical and problem-solving theories.