PSC 124 1st Edition Lecture 8 Outline of Last Lecture I. Peace StudiesII. Postmodernism III. Gender TheoriesOutline of Current LectureI. Foreign policy, rational decision making, and liberalist alternatives to the rational modelII. Individual decision makingIII. Crisis management and ambiguityIV. Decision making in groups Current LectureI. Foreign Policy- strategies used by national governments to guide their actions in international arena- rational model: decision makers set goals, evaluate their relative importance, calculate the costs and benefits of each possible course of action, then choose the one with the highest benefits and lowest costs- policies specify objectives and describe means for achieving those objectives- clarify your goalsorder them by importancelist the alternativesinvestigate the consequenceschoose- realists believe that rationality is based on self interest, both states and leaders are rational and the interests of both the leader and the state correlate (unitary actor)- the rational model of decision making is somewhat complicated by uncertainty and the multiple goals of decision makers- an alternative to the rational model is the organizational process model- foreign policy makers generally skip the labor-intensive process of identifying goals and alternative actors, relying instead for most decision on standardized responses or standardized operating procedures- another alternative is the government bargaining (bureaucratic politics) model- foreign policy decisions result from the bargaining process among various government agencies with somewhat divergent interests in the outcome- these models complicated realism because a state is not acting in unisonThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.II. Individual Decision Makers- individual leaders are always the ultimate decision makers- individual decision reflect the values, beliefs and the psychology of the decision makers- systematic divergences from rationality1. filtering and perceptions+filtering (information screens): subconscious filters through which people put the information coming in about the world+misperceptions: seeing the opposing side as the enemy and everything they do as aggressive; seeing only what you want to see2. affective bias: emotions of a decision maker impacting decisions3. cognitive biases: systematic distortions of rational calculations based not on emotional feelings but simply on the limitation of the human brain in making choicesIII. Crisis Management- crises have particular characteristics:1. time pressure2. importance of issue3. inability to go through usual processes4. communications: shorter, more stereotyped5. situation is often ambiguous- cognitive mistakes in a crisis: perception, judgment, decision making- heuristics: judgment uncertainty; trial and errorIV. Group Dynamics- can promote rationality or irrationality1. conformity2. groupthink: the tendency for groups to reach decisions without accurately assessing their consequences3. antecedent conditions: insulation, high group cohesiveness, directive leadership, lack of norms requiring methodical procedures, member homogeneity, high stress from external threats, low hope of a better solution4. symptoms of groupthink: illusion of invulnerability, belief in inherent morality of group, collective rationalization, shared stereotypes of out group, self censorship,illusion of unanimity, pressure on dessenters, self appointed