Who’s the greatest U.S. foreign-policy president?

Great president or greatest president?* How do the last 18 commanders in chief rank when it comes to managing an effective foreign policy? In the current issue of FP, we list only the top five, but the authors of Inside the Ivory Tower asked 1,112 international relations scholars for their opinions on every administration since ...

603479_Hoover_Campaign5.jpg
603479_Hoover_Campaign5.jpg

Great president or greatest president?* How do the last 18 commanders in chief rank when it comes to managing an effective foreign policy? In the current issue of FP, we list only the top five, but the authors of Inside the Ivory Tower asked 1,112 international relations scholars for their opinions on every administration since the original Rough Rider. Here's how the scholars answered the question, "Which THREE U.S. presidents have been the most effective in the area of foreign policy over the past 100 years?"

Great president or greatest president?* How do the last 18 commanders in chief rank when it comes to managing an effective foreign policy? In the current issue of FP, we list only the top five, but the authors of Inside the Ivory Tower asked 1,112 international relations scholars for their opinions on every administration since the original Rough Rider. Here’s how the scholars answered the question, “Which THREE U.S. presidents have been the most effective in the area of foreign policy over the past 100 years?”

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt 72%
2. Harry Truman 40%
3. Richard M. Nixon 30%
4. Bill Clinton 28%
5. Ronald Reagan 27%
6. Theodore Roosevelt 20%
6. George H.W. Bush 20%
7. Dwight Eisenhower 18%
8. John F. Kennedy 16%
9. Woodrow Wilson 14%
10. Jimmy Carter 9%
11. George W. Bush 1%
12. Gerald Ford 0.5%
13. Warren Harding 0.3%
14. Lyndon B. Johnson 0.2%
15. Calvin Coolidge 0.1%
15. William Taft 0.1%
16. Herbert Hoover 0%

I outlived the bastards.” 
Herbert Hoover’s response when asked how he dealt with his critics. – The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Musuem

Scour the complete data behind our latest edition of Inside the Ivory Tower and you’re bound to discover other gems. Let us know what you find, and we just might point to it here.

*: If you don’t get this reference, you obviously don’t watch the Colbert Report often enough.

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