Summitry with the Russians

Moderator
Repository
DigitalGeorgetown
Person Interviewed
Brown, Harold
Luttwak, Edward
Abstract
Examines the importance of summitry in international diplomacy and in the context of the 1984 presidential election.
Description
As the 1984 Presidential election heated up, former Vice President and Democratic candidate Walter Mondale seized on diplomacy with the Russians as a key issue in the campaign. Despite President Reagan's proclaimed willingness to talk with the Soviet Union, at the time of the campaign he was the only U.S. president since Herbert Hoover who had not met with his Soviet counterpart. Absent any high level U.S.-Soviet summitry and with arms control talks stalled at every level, Democrats felt President Reagan was vulnerable on the broad issue of superpower relations. Republicans countered these Democratic criticisms, saying that while President Reagan was willing to meet with the Soviets, quiet diplomacy would get better results than a summit meeting with no agenda. This collision between presidential politics and foreign policy raised key questions about the nature of summitry. Is it primarily a political matter, or are summits a necessary aspect of American foreign policy? In this episode host Peter Krogh sits down with Dr. Edward Luttwak, Senior Fellow at the Center for strategic and International Studies, and Dr. Harold Brown, Secretary of Defense under President Carter, to discuss the importance of summitry in international diplomacy.
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Date
1984-10-07
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Subject
Location
North America; United States;
Publisher
WETA-TV (Television station : Washington, D.C.)
 
Blackwell Corporation (Washington D.C.)
 
Georgetown University. School of Foreign Service
 
South Carolina Educational Television Network
 
Extent
28 min.
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