This book situates U.S. foreign policy processes in the contexts of three imperial presidencies: the administrations of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush. The contributors examine the changing contours of U.S. relations with South Asian states through two contrasting models of presidential policy making: imperative coordination, which is based on hierarchy and command and executed by presidents' men who serve at his pleasure and are committed to his partisan interests in the near term; and deliberative coordination, based on collegiality and persuasion and executed by foreign policy and military professionals knowledgeable about the regional, bi-lateral, and global dimensions of national interests and national security.