triumph of containment

President Jimmy Carter's foreign policy changed significantly and progressively over the course of his four year term. What began as a liberal-internationalist approach to foreign policy ended in a traditional Cold War stalemate with the Soviet Union. There are many causes for this shift: changes in the international environment, shifting public opinion, and other domestic-political pressures. One of the most consistently undervalued causes for Carter's overall foreign policy shift was the personal influence of his National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Through a variety of advocacy pressures and framing tactics, Brzezinski was able to utilize the changes in the international system, and especially, changes within domestic-political environment to convince Carter of an extensive reformation of his foreign policy perspective and priorities.