This dissertation examines persistent policy problems---policies that fail to meet their own objectives despite the sustained attention of government over long periods of time or despite the focused application of resources dedicated to the problem's resolution. This study uses the logically comprehensive set of frameworks and propositions available in the policy sciences tradition to examine three cases of persistent policy problems: endocrine-disrupting chemicals, high-level radioactive waste, and climate change. Each of these cases is examined in two chapters. The first chapter engages in an appraisal of the authoritative prescription(s) according to its formal objectives, establishing that policy as a persistent policy problem and identifying important factors conditioning its failure. The second chapter examines each persistent policy problem from a common interest perspective in a broader intelligence analysis that abandons formal objectives and explicitly discusses the valid and appropriate interests engaged in or affected by the policy. After identifying a provisional common interest in each persistent policy problem, the second chapter examines the trends relevant to that objective and the factors conditioning those trends in order to assess the extent to which the status quo secures the common interest and in order to inform an analysis of potential alternatives to the status quo. Finally, a concluding chapter engages in a meta-analysis of the three case studies to glean practical insights into persistent policy problems potentially applicable to other similarly persistent problems. Commonalities among the three persistent policy problems include goal displacement, myths and perspectives, the role of ordinary versus constitutive policy, situational context, and strategic considerations.