Bureaucratic Politics And Presidential Leadership: Analyzing Obama’s Decision To Intervene In Libya But Not In Syria

Abstract

This research article analyzes why the president Obama administration in 2011 decided to engage U.S armed forces in Libya and in 2013 decided to seek congressional authorization for the use of force in Syria. This comparative analysis illustrates how the combined effects of bureaucratic politics and the president’s leadership style contributed to the decision-making process of two different decision-making outcomes. The study finds mixed research support for the explanatory power of the bureaucratic politics model in both cases. The study also finds that the extent of presidential pre-eminence in the decision-making enables the understanding of yes in Libya and no in Syria.