Buck passing, orpassing the buck, is the act of attributing to another person or group one's own responsibility. It is often used to refer to a strategy inpower politics whereby a state tries to get another state to deter or fight an aggressor state while it remains on the sidelines.[1] Buck passing is not to be confused withscapegoating, the act of blaming.
The expression is said to have originated frompoker in which a marker or counter (such as a knife with a buckhorn handle during theAmerican Frontier era) was used to indicate the person whose turn it was todeal. If the player did not wish to deal, the responsibility could be passed by the passing of the "buck", as the counter came to be called, to the next player.[2]
Passing the buck ininternational relations theory involves the tendency ofnation-states to refuse to confront a growing threat in the hopes that another state will.[3] According toJohn Mearsheimer,Thomas Christensen andJack Snyder, buck passing is particularly common inmultipolar international systems whereas it is rare in bipolar international systems.[3][4] Examples of buck passing include:
Similarly, Mearsheimer argues that the delay of theNormandy Invasion shows that a buck passing state can shift the balance of power in its favor: "There is no question that the United States benefited greatly from delaying the Normandy invasion until late in the war, when both the German and the Soviet armies were battered and worn down. Not surprisingly,Joseph Stalin believed that the United Kingdom and the United States were purposely allowing Germany and the Soviet Union to bleed each other white, so that those offshore balancers [the United States and the United Kingdom] could dominate postwar Europe."[5]
"The buck stops here" is a phrase that was popularized byU.S. PresidentHarry S. Truman, who kept a sign with that phrase on his desk in theOval Office.[6] The phrase refers to the notion that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions. Truman received the sign as a gift from a prison warden who was also an avid poker player. It is also the motto of theU.S. Naval Aircraft CarrierUSSHarry S. Truman (CVN-75).[7] The reverse of the sign reads, "I'm from Missouri."[6] This is a reference to Truman's home state as well asWillard Duncan Vandiver's statement: "I'm from Missouri. You've got to show me."
PresidentJimmy Carter arranged to borrow the sign from theHarry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.[8] Footage from Carter's "Address to the Nation on Energy"[9] shows the sign on the desk during his administration.
The phrase has been referenced in subsequent episodes in presidential history. During theWatergate scandal, Nixon administration officials sought to scapegoatG. Gordon Liddy and had the motto "The buck stops with Liddy".[10] On January 10, 2019, 19 days into a federal government shutdown, a reporter asked PresidentDonald Trump if "the buck stops with you over this shutdown". Trump responded with "The buck stops with everybody."[11] In 2021, U.S. PresidentJoe Biden said in his statement regarding his affirmation of theAfghanistan withdrawal, "The buck stops with me."[12][13]
In 2019, in his first speech asU.K. Prime Minister,Boris Johnson vowed to "take personal responsibility for the change" that he would advance, saying "The buck stops here."[14][15]Yoon Suk Yeol, formerpresident of South Korea, had a replica of the Truman desk sign on his own desk.[16]
