Theodore C. Sorensen

Overview of 'new agenda' possibilities in a "world of both unmatched opportunity and unprecedented opacity".

Reviews the relationship between these US offices, with particular reference to Reagan's presidency, and the vicissitudes of his secretaries. Calls for the restoration of mutual respect between the White House and the State Department, and puts forward some principles and practices on which this could be based. Concludes that "what matters is whose advice, written or unwritten, the president ultimately values the most on any given issue".

The Amendment submitted by Senator Henry Jackson to the Administration's pending Trade Reform bill, along with its counterpart in the House of Representatives, is a curious blend of foreign policy idealism and domestic politics. The exaggerated claims of both proponents and opponents in the long and often emotional debate over the Amendment cannot obscure the underlying issue, which is as old as the nation-state-whether and when should one nation apply pressure to alter those policies or practices of another which, if not exclusively "internal" in impact, are at least not clearly within the traditional foreign policy realm. Although any amendment enjoying the formal sponsorship of nearly four-fifths of the members of the Senate and nearly two-thirds of the members of the House appears almost certain to be passed in one form or another, both the Congress and the Administration must now think through more carefully the implications and consequences of enacting the Amendment in its present form.