Joseph A. Ledford

PhD Candidate

North America

As an historian who specializes in U.S. foreign relations, I have a general interest in the formulation of foreign policy and the exercise of American power in the world. My research and writing also examine presidential power and the relationship between domestic politics and foreign affairs. I am chiefly concerned with policymaking, politics, and international relations.

Provisionally entitled, "Primacy of the Presidency: A Reagan Revolution, the Iran-Contra Affair, and American Political Order," my dissertation examines Ronald Reagan’s presidency and Iran-Contra, focusing on the dynamics of domestic politics, foreign policy, and presidential power underlying the affair.

I founded and currently direct the Berkeley Working Group on Strategy and Statecraft. For more information, please contact statecraft@berkeley.edu

Research Interests

• US Foreign Policy
• Politics
• The American Presidency
• Law
• War
• Strategy
• International Relations

Awards & Fellowships

Congressional Research Grant, The Everett M. Dirksen Congressional Center

Selected Participant, Summer Seminar in Statecraft and History, William P. Clements Jr. Center for National Security, UT-Austin

Pre-Dissertation Research Grant, Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Peter and Edith O'Donnell Grant, Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service

Tisch Library Research Fellowship in the Humanities and the Arts

Department of History Research Award, Tufts University

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Research Award, Tufts University

Publications

Review of Why America Loses Wars: Limited War and US Strategy from the Korean War to the Present, by Donald Stoker, H-War, H-Net Reviews, (Forthcoming).

Review of The Mayaguez Crisis, Mission Command, and Civil-Military Relations, by Christopher J. Lamb, Journal of Military History 84, No. 2 (April 2020): 652-653.

Presentations

“Lawyers, Guns, and Money: The Contra War and American Political Order,” The Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19)

“A Reagan Revolution: The Iran-Contra Affair and American Statecraft, 1981-1993,” LSE International History Research Seminar (HY509), London School of Economics, 2018

"Piercing the Teflon-Presidency: The Iran-Contra Affair and Presidential Power," The Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, 2018

"'The Most Important Place in the World': Central America during the Reagan Era," The Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, 2018

"The Risky Business of Rollback: Anti-Communist Americans, the Contra War, and the Reagan Doctrine," The Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Annual Meeting, 2017

"The Risky Business of Rollback: Anti-Communist Americans, the Contra War, and the Reagan Doctrine," Western Social Science Association Annual Meeting, 2017

"The Ills of Democracy: The Ronald Reagan Administration and Chile's Transition to Democracy," The New England Council of Latin American Studies Annual Meeting, 2015