did-you-know? rent-now

Rent More, Save More! Use code: ECRENTAL

did-you-know? rent-now

Rent More, Save More! Use code: ECRENTAL

5% off 1 book, 7% off 2 books, 10% off 3+ books

9780801878114

Explaining Foreign Policy : U. S. Decision-Making and the Persian Gulf War

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780801878114

  • ISBN10:

    080187811X

  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 2004-03-22
  • Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
  • Purchase Benefits
  • Free Shipping Icon Free Shipping On Orders Over $35!
    Your order must be $35 or more to qualify for free economy shipping. Bulk sales, PO's, Marketplace items, eBooks and apparel do not qualify for this offer.
  • eCampus.com Logo Get Rewarded for Ordering Your Textbooks! Enroll Now
List Price: $23.00

Summary

Scholars of international relations tend to prefer one model or another in explaining the foreign policy behavior of governments. Steve Yetiv, however, advocates an approach that applies five familiar models: rational actor, cognitive, domestic politics, groupthink, and bureaucratic politics. Drawing on the widest set of primary sources and interviews with key actors to date, he applies each of these models to the 1990-91 Persian Gulf crisis and to the U.S. decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. Probing the strengths and shortcomings of each model in explaining how and why the United States decided to proceed with the Persian Gulf War, he shows that all models (with the exception of the government politics model) contribute in some way to our understanding of the event. No one model provides the best explanation, but when all five are used, a fuller and more complete understanding emerges. In the case of the Gulf War, Yetiv demonstrates the limits of models that presume rational decision-making as well as the crucial importance of using various perspectives. Drawing partly on the Gulf War case, he also develops innovative theories about when groupthink can actually produce a positive outcome and about the conditions under which government politics will likely be avoided. He shows that the best explanations for government behavior ultimately integrate empirical insights yielded from both international and domestic theory, which scholars have often seen as analytically separate. With its use of the Persian Gulf crisis as a teachable case study and coverage of the more recent Iraq war, Explaining Foreign Policy will be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy, international relations, and related fields.

Author Biography

Steve A. Yetiv is an associate professor of political science at Old Dominion University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1(201)
1. The United States, Iraq, and the Crisis: Some Background
18(12)
2. The Rational Actor Model
30(28)
3. A Cognitive Compass: Analogies at Work
58(24)
4. Constructing the Threat: Saddam the Global Menace
82(22)
5. Elements of Groupthink on the Road to War
104(17)
6. Government Politics: Not Much, Actually
121(17)
7. Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: Evaluating the Perspectives
138(18)
8. Threading the Tale
156(29)
9. Tackling Puzzles and Developing Theory
185(17)
10. Understanding Government Behavior: Integrating Process, Choice, and Outcome 202(12)
11. Beyond the Gulf: Foreign Policy and World Politics 214(4)
Postscript: From War to War 218(17)
Appendix: Core Interviews 235(2)
Notes 237(30)
Bibliography 267(14)
Index 281

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program