Of Dinners and Diplomacy: What White House State Dinners Reveal About Relationship Building and Goodwill Signaling in U.S. Foreign Policy

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Behind their glamour, White House State Dinners are innately political events that put the U.S. president face-to-face with a foreign counterpart for an evening of food and entertainment, usually followed or preceded by days of bilateral meetings. This thesis explores how these Dinners fit into presidents’ diplomatic toolbox by asking How do White House State Dinners relate to U.S. Foreign Policy? It answers this question by quantitatively examining the characteristics of international states invited to Dinners since the first one in 1874 through President Obama's last Dinner in 2016. It then offers in-depth case studies of the Dinners hosted under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan to further illuminate why Dinners occur. This thesis finds that Dinners are used as signals and as mechanisms to improve leaders' interpersonal relationships. It further concludes that the United States invites states to Dinners to endorse U.S.-oriented behavior, to build regional influence, to maintain traditional relationships, and/or to celebrate diplomatic breakthroughs.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 20, 2020

Author	Bishko, Emily
Primary advisor	Rakove, Robert

Subject	Program in International Relations
Subject	International Relations
Subject	White House State Dinners
Subject	Diplomacy
Subject	Interpersonal Relationships
Subject	Goodwill
Subject	Gerald Ford
Subject	Jimmy Carter
Subject	Ronald Reagan
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/md222pt6655

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Bishko, Emily. (2020). Of Dinners and Diplomacy: What White House State Dinners Reveal About Relationship Building and Goodwill Signaling in U.S. Foreign Policy. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/md222pt6655

Stanford University, Program in International Relations, Honors Theses

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