When engaging with other countries, the U.S. government has a number of different policy instruments at its disposal, including foreign aid, international trade and the use of military force. But what determines which policies are chosen?

A new book titled, “Sailing the Water’s Edge: The Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy” examines such topics and will be the topic of discussion at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015, in Bowl 016, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus.

The authors, Helen Milner of Princeton and Dustin Tingley *10 of Harvard University, will be joined in conversation by Bart Gellman '82, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and visiting specialist at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. A book sale and signing will follow the discussion.

“Sailing the Water’s Edge” explores how domestic U.S. politics – in particular the interactions between the president, Congress, interest groups, bureaucratic institutions, and the public –have influenced foreign policy choices since World War II and shows why presidents have more control over some policy instruments than others.

Milner is the B. C. Forbes Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton and the director of the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance based at the Wilson School. She was the chair of the Department of Politics from 2005 to 2011 and president of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) from 2012-14. Milner has written extensively on issues related to international and comparative political economy, the connections between domestic politics and foreign policy, globalization and regionalism and the relationship between democracy and trade policy.

Dustin Tingley is a professor of government in the government department at Harvard University. He received a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton in 2010 and BA from the University of Rochester in 2001. His research interests include international relations, international political economy, experimental approaches to political science, and statistical methodology. Dustin is currently working on new experimental projects on bargaining, attitudes towards global climate change, and new statistical methods methods for the social sciences.

Gellman is the author of The New York Times bestseller “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,” and has, since June of 2013, written stories for The Washington Post about the NSA documents provided to him by Edward Snowden. He is also a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. His professional honors include two Pulitzer Prizes, a George Polk Award, a Henry Luce Award and Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting. Gellman graduated with highest honors from Princeton and earned a master’s degree in politics at University College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.

Students will be seated first at all non-ticketed events.

NOTE: ALL MEDIA MUST REGISTER AT brhuber@princeton.edu PRIOR TO EVENT. UNAUTHORIZED VIDEO AND/OR AUDIO TAPING PROHIBITED.