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There is a domestic orientation, people care more about domestic affairs and hope
government does the same.
Less people care about what happens in the world. However, the world drama is
important and it deserves our careful attention. Be more than a mere observer.
World politics affects the personal economic conditions of each of us. Impact of
international economics on domestic societies continues to expand as world
industrial and financial structures are more intertwined. Trade wins and loses jobs.
Theres a dependency on foreign resources for vital resources. Inflation is tied into
foreign affairs, as is the domestic allocation of our own resources.
Most important actors states. Source of political divisionnational boundaries.
Nationalism the strongest source of political identification.
A key change in the international system since WWII has been the rapid rise in the
number of states (200).
Intermestic is a term used by scientists to symbolize the merger of international
and domestic concerns.
International economy affects your job, aspects of your financial security and
defense spending affects you too.
The disagreement between realists and idealists about the nature of politics is perhaps the
most fundamental division in all of political discourse.
The 2 disagree over the nature of homo politicus (political humankind). Realists are
pessimists about human nature and idealists are optimists.
Struggles between states are the main action on the world stage.
Power determines which country prevails. Politics is aimed at increasing
power, keeping power or demonstrating it. Essence of politics is struggle for
power.
Foreign policy is based on the existence of a supposedly Darwinian,
country-eat-country world. Power is the key to the national survival.
National interest: whatever that enhances or preserves the states security,
its influence, and its military and economic power.
Realists are not amoral. The highest moral duty of state is to do good for its
citizens. Moral principle of national survival. More benefits than costs.
Perhaps all political analysis, inevitably can trace its roots back to realism
(pessimistic view, struggle for power, the norm of politics is conflict) and idealism
(optimistic approach, struggle for human betterment, the norm of politics is
cooperation).
Many other orientations that combine or are rooted in realism and idealism. It is
worth to mention feminism and economics.
In feminist theory the unit of analysis is gender. This theory is diverse and has
many interpretations. Some aspects related to realism: the role that power plays in
politics. Gender is one of the basic sources of division and definition in political
society. But for the most part, feminism is related to idealism since it advocates
change. Feminists believe that justice requires the elimination of gender
discrimination. Many also hold that eliminating gender discrimination will improve
the state of the world, that because aggression is associated with maleness.
In economics the unit of analysis is wealth. From the International Political
Economy perspective, the economic forces and conditions play the primary role in
IR. There is a degree of realist-idealist split among its 3 principal subdivisions:
mercantilism, liberalism and structuralism.
- Mercantilism: is an economic nationalist theory that maintains that world
political relations are heavily influenced by the competition among
countries for resources, wealth, and power. Countries use tools of
economic statecraft (trade & foreign aid) to further their national
interests.
- Liberalism: it resembles the idealist school of thought. Economic liberals
believe that many of the world ills (conflict, poverty) result from
protectionism and other political barriers to free trade and international
economic interchange. World free trade is peace.
- Structuralism: it studies political structure and process from the
perspective of economic structure, which economic class or type of
countries controls economic resources. It shares the sense of conflict
and the importance of power, but for it, the international political policy is
the result of economic struggle (not political) for power. It also believes
in change.
The concept of an international system represents the notion that it is possible to describe
global relations as a whole. Actions do not occur randomly; instead general global patterns
of actions occur among the systems actors.
The international system evolved slowly for several centuries, then shifted rapidly during
the XX century.
The evolution of the current world political system began in about the 15th century
modern states began to merge. The emergence of states as the focus of political
authority involved integration and disintegration.
- The integration process began because of the weakening of small feudal units
(dukedoms, principalities) and city-states to maintain their political viability and
autonomy. Small units declined, so kings gained power to consolidate their
authority and to end the independence of the feudal states.
- The disintegration process involved the unwillingness of people to accept
distant, overarching authority secularization of politics, especially the
resistance in Europe to the Roman Catholic Church. This process also
included revolts and the collapse of empiresthat began with the fall of the
Holy Roman Empire (16&17 centuries) and also is include the fall of the USSR
(1991).
- The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) symbolizes this eclipse of overarching authority and
the foundation of modern states. This ended the Thirty Years War, declaring the
independence of Netherlands and many German states. It separated religion from
politics.
- In the post-Westphalian system, states became the primary actors, which is the same
today. That is partly the result of possessing sovereigntystates do not recognize any
higher legitimate authority. So IR occur in an anarchical political system, which does not
mean chaos. Actually, the system operates with regularity. Anarchy=lack of central
authority.
Many of the events occurred during 1700-1900 shaped the structure and operation of the
international system as it exists now. 3 themes stand out: the coming of popular
sovereignty, the Westernization of the international system, and the culmination of the
multipolar system.
The concept popular sovereignty marked a change in the notion of who owned the state
and how it should be governed.
- 1700 and early 1800, the theory of the divine right of kings held that the
monarch was the sovereign and that the people in the sovereigns
realm were subjects. It was the monarch (he had legitimate political
authority), not the people, who owned the state. The American and
French Revolutions challenged this philosophy. Democracies were
established on the principle that sovereign political power rests with the
people. The notion of popular sovereignty expanded the concept of
nationalism to include mass identification with the participation in the
affairs of the state. One symbol of this change was the Napoleonic
France (1799-1815) that had a true patriotic draft.
- America and France with their democratic nationalism spread
undermined monarchical government and the divine right. The collapse
of the dynasties in China, Germany, Russia, the Ottoman Empire
marked the real end of strong monarchical government.
The domination and shaping of the international system by the West was another
characteristic of the 18th and 19th centuries.
- Growth of European power: UK, France and others controlled North and
South America and other regions
- Non-European empires or dynasties began to decline.
- The domination of the West accelerated in the 19th century.
- One reason for the Westernization of the international system was the
scientific and tech advances from the Renaissance. Besides, the
Industrial Revolution, which was a western phenomenon that started in
UK.
- The European powers gained in strength compared with
nonindustrialized Asia and Africa since the industrialized ones needed
resources and markets to their capitalist expansion promoted by
colonialism, which also represented prestige. Eurowhite domination,
Euro-American imperialism. China was never technically colonized, but
after 1840 it was divided into spheres of influence: UK (Hong Kong),
Japan (Taiwan).
- Americans also had colonial possessions. USA acquired Pacific
territories (Hawaii and Samoa) and the victory of the Spanish-American
War (1898) added Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. US also
dominated the Caribbean and Central American countries.
- The imperialist subjugation of Asians, Africans and others by Europeans
and Americans set the stage for establishing the North-South Axis. The
anticolonial movement began, so these empires did not last long.
Independence: Haiti (1804) from France, by 1824 all of Spains colonies
in America and Brazil from Portugal.
One study found that a system with two poles (bipolar) has a medium chance of war,
three/pole (tripolar) system has a low propensity toward war and that systems with four or
more poles (multipolar) have the highest probability of war.
However, another analysis states 3 important things: 1)that the increased complexity of
tripolar systems made them less stable than bipolar systems; 2)the global polar structure
is just one independent variable that affects the dependent variable of war 3)there are
scholars who question the impact of poles at all.
A variation to this argument is to argue that poles may have been important in the past but
their impact on the action of the major powers has declined.
Concentration of power
A pole is a major power center, but not all major powers are equal. System stability varies
in part to the degree to which power is concentrated or diffused among the various poles.
For some scholars war is more likely to happen when antagonistic poles have relative
equal power, because they perceive the successful use of force, and is less likely to
happen when there is disequilibrium, when power is concentrated in one camp. Other
scholar disagree, they believe that conflict of countries of unequal power is more likely,
because when the two antagonists are equal in power, they are deterred from war by the
fear of being defeated. A weak country can attack when the country has no choice and the
aggressor attacks.
Emotions are other option.
Decision makers are willing to accept much greater risks to prevent losses than gain an
advantage.
Other scholars say that conflict is least likely when power is equal or very unequal. It is
most likely to happen when there is moderate power between antagonists-> it
miscalculates the relative power or their opponent.
There are different theories about power-based changes in the international system. Some
scholars propound cycle theories, which means cycles that are demarcated by great
power or systemic wars that reflect strains created. These systemic wars alter the system
by destroying the major power status of declining powers and rising powers to pole status.
Then the process of power decay and formation begins anew.
Another study proposes chaos theory saying that there is an evolution to power in the
system, this evolution is chaotic and that patterns of global power are not strict
chronological cycles but variable patterns.
At the end, all agree that international system does change and that shifts are important,
therefore how power change is a key concern.
Other variables are important to estimate the impact of power shifts. One study found that
rapid shifts created more instability than slower transitions. Other scholars say that global
war is most probable when power changes in a pattern in which power is becoming more
concentrated in the most important region (Europe in the past, Asia in the future).
Transitional systems tend toward instability when hegemonic powers are no longer able or
willing to control events in countries that were once part of theory sphere of influence.
Economic Patterns
The operation of the international system is also a product in part of its economic patterns.
These patterns can be> interdependence, natural resource location and use, and the
maldistribution of development.
Economic interdependence is one pattern that have noted repeatedly. There is some
controversy over whether interdependence promotes peace or creates tensions, but there
is no disagreement that it profoundly affects the international system.
The pattern of where natural resources are produced and consumed also influences the
operation of the system. The strong reaction of the industrialized (and petroleum import-
dependent) countries to Iraqs aggression in 1990 was based significantly on the
distribution of resources.
The maldistribution of development has consequences for the international system. The
main actors, the states, in the system are dived into relative haves and have-nots. At the
most general level, this economic division pits the less developed countries (LDCs), &
demands for equity against the economically developed countries. There is a connection
between the poor economic conditions in LDCs and such problems as rapid political
oppression and instability, population growth and environmental degradation. The disparity
also creates resentments, which leads to systemic violence.
Norms of behavior
The values or standards constitute the norms of a system. Norms must be generally
recognized and followed and they need not to be either accepted or practiced universally.
Violations of norms can lead to social pressures and even formal sanctions.
Systems develop norms for 2 reasons: 1) various psychological and social factors prompt
humans to adopt values to define what is the ethical and moral.
2) Humans tend to favor regularized patterns of behavior because of the pragmatic need
to interact and to avoid the anxiety and disruption caused bt the random or unwanted
behavior of others.
Changes that are occurring in international norms are an important aspect of the evolving
system.
The dominant countries of the north influenced norms but the south now disagrees with
some of them, increasing the number of challenges of the prevailing norms of the system.
Travel and trade are transnational forces that are eroding cultural differences; tv is another
transnational force that is changing norms.
An authority structure based on the sovereign state has created an anarchical international
system marked by standards of self-interest and self help. Power is a second determining
characteristic of the system. So, how power is distributed within the system operation and
its stability bases a characteristic of the system. Norms also help to determine international
behavior.
While countries are theoretically free to make any decision, they are often restrained by
the realities of the system in which they exist. The impact of the system on a countrys
policy will vary according to the specific issues and circumstances involved.
States decides to ignore the rules or to change them.
The answer to predict is uncertain because there are pressures in the state centric system
from two directions: Some pressures pushes the system toward greater international
cooperation and supranational governance and other pressures to subnational o
transnational political organizations. This movement toward more global structures is
called MacWorld-> based on the buildup of economic and ecological forces that demand
cooperation and integration, one commercially homogeneous global network, tied together
by technology, ecology, communications and commerce.
There is an increment of transnational identifications as religion and gender.
Analysts believe that stated will remain strong, integral units and that the system will
remain state-centric. Others believe that the worlds complex interdependence will result in
a much higher level of global authority. A third school argues that disintegration will prevail.
The coming anarchy predicts is going to be replaced by jagged-glass pattern of city-
states poor, shanty-states and nebulous and anarchic regionalisms.
State level analysts and system level analysts recognize that states have long been the
most powerful actors on the world stage. State level analysts contend that states are
relatively free to decide what policies to follow. State-level analysts concentrate on what
countries do and how they decide which policy to follow.
Studying what countries do is based on the view that the course of world politics is mostly
a sum of the actions and reactions of individual stated -> these interactions are called
events.
Event data analysis is useful for analyzing matters such as reciprocity between countries.
Analyzing how countries decide to adopt one of a range of possible policies is the second
concern of state level analysts. It is necessary to understand domestic factors and a
countrys foreign policy decision-making processes. Combined these factors, determines
how states act and how the international system works as a sum of these actions.
State: Tangible political entity. It is a country. States can generally be identified by such
objective criteria as having a defined territory and a government.
Nation: cultural term that refers to a group of people who identify with one another
politically because of common characteristics, such as shared history, language, culture,
religion or race. It means that they are not based on objective criteria; nations are
intangible and based on peoples perceptions.
--->Difference between ethnic group and a nation: nation has active or latent aspirations
for independence or autonomy, ethnics groups not.
The freedom of all foreign policy decision makers whether in democratic or dictatorial
states is limited by an intricate web of governmental and societal restraints.
Types of government:
This is one variable that affects the foreign policy process whether is a countrys type of
domestic political system. Which means how policy is decided will result in differences in
policy substance which policy is adopted.
Types of situations
Situation is one variable that determines the exact nature of the foreign policy process.
Crisis situations are one factor that affects how policy is made. Crisis circumstances, in
which decisions makers are surprised by an event, feel threatened and believe that they
have only a short time to make decisions. Decisions normally made by small groups made
up of high-level political leaders.
Public opinion is apt to rally in support of actions of the political leaders.
During non-crisis policy making and subnational actors are more likely to be active and
influential. During crisis leaders usually strive to make rational decisions. It is a challenge
to gather and analyze information hampered by the exigency of time. Crisis also increases
the emotional content of decisions.
Another variable is the situation that fits the existing pattern of relations or portends a
radical change.
Status quo situations are those that fall within existing world pattern. When government
analyze problems in term of the conventional wisdom and choose policies that follow
established policies or make minor changes is called incremental policy.
Types of policy
How foreign policy is decided varies according the nature of the issue involved. One theory
holds that presidents, premiers and other leaders have more power to decide foreign
policy than they do to determine domestic policy. The latter are is one in which
legislatures, interest groups and public opinion play a greater role.
Policies cannot be neither purely domestic nor purely foreign, instead have elements of
both and constitute a third type called interested policy. An example of this is foreign trade.
The theory of it says that the influence of political leaders is less on such interested issues
of domestic issues because it directly impacts and activates interest groups, legislators,
etc. more than do foreign policy issues.
This environment on all foreign policy decisions includes political culture of a society.
Political culture refers to a societys general long held and fundamental practices and
attitudes. It has two main sources
1. National historical experience: the sum of events and practices that have shaped a
country and its citizens.
2. National belief system: the ideas and ideologies that people hold.
Political culture does not usually create specific policy but pressures leaders or allow them
to move in a general direction. It is important in establishing a countrys broad sense of its
national interest.
However political culture changes, usually evolutionary because it is rooted far back in a
countries history and is resistant to change.
3. Society political culture is not monolithic. The leadership of a country may come
from a limited segment of the society that does not have the same values of the
general public.
- Political culture impact policy in 3 attitudes:
1. Protecting and enhancing the national core
2. Creating and maintaining a favorable world order
3. Projecting values.
China is the example, as it has tremendous consciousness of and pride od their 3,000
year old culture and history.
National Core: Its foreign policy principle is maintaining independence, self reliance and
national sovereignty
Sense of being beset: by foreign peril is a third of the core orientations of the Chineses
political culture. One of their most symbolic senses of being besieged is the Great Wall. It
was reinforces by the communist ideological view in the attempt of the capitalist to destroy
the communist movement.
For Chinese, the cold war has not lessened the international threat to China. US is
nervous about China becoming powerful day by day.
Favorable World Order: China is curious mixture of a former great power that once
dominated its region and a currently developing and still officially communist country.
These factors favors China in the status quo. It is an ambitious nation. Its world view is
increased international economic interchange, modernizing itself and realize the needs of
the western technology and investment to do so.
Pgs 102, 135
Projecting Values
The political culture of a nation determines how this nation can apply it, based on its own
values to judge others. For example: Americans have a missionary idea of reshaping the
world and making others follow the US model because it is the best for all nations. But in
countries like China the political culture values are different. Although they are proud of
their culture, they dont have the need of imposing it on others. Even when the communist
ideology was part of the FP it was less active than what Russia did. This has to do with
historical background such as Confucianism. China adopts what it sees as foreign values
but they do it based on their culture, they dont like pressures at face value because it is
like a campaign used to subvert them
Political executives: official whose tenure is variable and depends on the political
contest for power in their country. They are the strongest subnational actors in the FP
process.
They are in the executive branch: presidents, prime ministers, chancellors or kings or
emirs. They have important legal or formal powers. Most chiefs are commanders in chief
of their countries in armed forces (they have unilaterally power over the military)
The reasons why they are predominant in FP making process are:
1. Kings controlled the armed forces and they kept authority after they lost control of
domestic affairs and parliament.
2. There is a widespread that successful conduct of FP requires concentration of the
executive power
3. FP sparks limited activity on other subnational actors who tend to worry only about
domestic events.
4. Most political leaders have advantage over other subnational actors. Leaders can
act, and the legislative for instance can debate
Another advantage is that they can have much greater information than other actors
But leaders are not monarchs- widespread of democracy
Political leaders are involved in a 2 level game: that is be successful diplomats they
have to negotiate at the international level but also at the local level with legislators,
bureaucrats, interest groups and the public.
Legislatures: it is less than the executive branch, and the bureaucratic. However,
legislatures are not powerless they can influence among countries. But for instance in
countries that are nondemocratic like China, the legislatures follow the decision of the
political leadership (Chinas National Peoples Congress). But even in democratic
countries sometimes they are inhibited by factors like tradition, second is because politics
should stop at a waters edge, that is the belief that a unified national voice is important
for a successful FP. Third, is because often leaders have extensive constitutional power.
Fourth, legislators focus more on domestic affairs rather than international. The thing is
that if the focus more on the international then they are not considering the constituents
interests. But legislatures can play an important role in foreign affairs too. Especially when
a high-profile issue captures public attention and public opinion opposes to the presidents
policy. Congress was 1 of the push factors so that during Nixons administration, USA had
to go out of the Vietnam war.
Political Opposition: those who are in power face rivals who would replace them to
change policy or to gain power. In democracies, opposition is legitimate and is organized
in political parties, but there can also be rival politicians in the same party. In
nondemocratic systems, opposition is less peaceful.
There is a division in opposition between the ones that want to change policy and the ones
who want to get control of the government. A second division is between those who are
inside and outside of the government
Interest Groups: private (nongovernmental) peoples who have similar view and who
pressure the government to adopt those views as policy. Interest groups are becoming
more important in the FP process. There are many types of groups.
Cultural groups: ethnic, racial, religious, or other cultural groups. One example is
the USA, a country made up of immigrants where you have Cubans, Irish, Mexican,
Polish, etc. Groups that are active on behalf of policies that favor their ancestral
homes.
Economic groups: they make contradictory demands for protection from foreign
competition and for pressure on other countries to open their markets. They lobby
with governments for favorable domestic legislation and for support when a
company is having a dispute with the government. Labor unions also affect trade
issues and some other types of foreign policy. They often favor policies that will
protect workers in industries threatened by foreign competition.
Transnational interest groups: some are NGOs of like minded individual from
various countries that use resources on their own to press the governments to
adopt policies that they desire. They lobby in countries where they have interests,
but there are also countries that try to influence specific policy in other countries,
like Taiwan that wants to improve its international standing.
The People: they play a role which is more important in democratic systems than in
authoritarian. But in any system the public is not totally ignored by leaders
Variations in opinion and opinion interest People are normally focused on domestic
fairs like unemployment, taxes or social issues like abortion rather that in international
events. There is only few people who are interested in foreign policy and world events.
The public gets interested in foreign policy depending on the situation and issues, usually
they pay attention to things like crisis. Opinion varies, one reason is ideology. Opinions of
individuals depend on their general ideological orientation. Gender is another variation,
another is societies elites and the mass.
Another thing to consider is its quality, because sometimes people are ignorant of
uninformed. There is a disagreement of the statemen that uninformed public can create
instability to FP, but for others opinion is reasonable and stable. This responds to the idea
that people do not pay close attention to news but also there is the study that what people
know varies from country to country. Researchers suggest that you can see quality of
opinion by comparing what people say with events, to see si la idea va de acuerdo o no a
la noticia.
Cognitive factors: decision making is involved with cybernetics (the study of control and
communications systems). But humans dont approach to a prefect cybernetic system so
there is cognitive decision making. It means that humans make decisions within the limits
of what they know or consider. Cognitive decision making is also called bounded
rationality.
There are external and internal boundaries that affect this cognitive decision.
External boundaries include factors like missing erroneous information and the inability to
know exactly what decisions other politicians in other countries are taking or what they are
thinking.
Internal boundaries: intellectual and physical limits of individuals.
*Emotions: too human internal restraint on rational decision making
Foreign policy decisions are made withing this limits, so the key issue is how policy
makers cope with cognitive limits on rational decision making. To cope with them they
seek:
- Cognitive consistency: decision makers attempt to suppress ideas and
information to reduce a majority accepted interpretations, o sea es reprimir info
o ocultar cosas a la gente para que la mayora no cambie de opinion y acepten
y haya apoyo comn
- Wishful thinking: individuals have emotional stakes in its wisdom so they
believe that their choice will succeed, so it is so hard to reverse that decision
once it was made
- Limitating the scope of the decision: decide on small things rather than on
big ones, to limit what must be decided. Incrementalism is one way: choose the
safest choice, following the established policy or making small changes.
Satisficing is another option: adopting the first option presented that meets
minimal goals to continue looking for the best solution.
- Using Heuristic devices: 4th strategy to deal with cognitive limits. It is a mental
tool or frame of reference that helps to evaluate information, to reach decisions
quickly like experiences of policy makers. Also, national belief systems are one
such culture-based heuristic like the US shared a common national belief that
the Soviet Union was communist and authoritarian. A second one is
stereotypes among countries- arabs speak English with no accent or English
speaking Israelis
Ethology: it is the comparison between animal and human behavior. Like animals,
human behave in a way that is based party on innate characteristics. For example is
territoriality when leaders defend the piece of property and even territorial disputes are a
common cause of war. Example: War between Peru and Ecuador 1995 Guerra del
Cenepa
Gender: power seeking is mainly a male sexual impulse. Males tend to act and increase
power as means of increasing their reproductive success. Political scientists analyze if
gender makes a difference in political attitudes and if there are differences because of our
biological origin or because of divergent ways by which males and females are socialized.
The question is if an equal representation of women among policy makers that reverses
tradition would make a difference in global affairs. Because the attitudes of women in
authority may be different. There are different attitudes about violence but they are socially
constructed. The thing is that biology is the sole cause of behavior so because of that
there are differences between male and female
SO SAY THE MAMAS: A FEMMINIST WORLD It was one of the projects developed
during the undergraduate of the author in 1990. This project and story was thought in the
year 2050 it consisted on the fact that a group of women thought the violence and
inequality in the world would never end. So the idea to change this would be by creating a
new society only made up by women in a planet called Xylos. And that women could have
frozen sperm to have only baby females, this to preserve the all female population in the
planet, they would be called So say the mamas.
Role Behavior: we all play a variety of roles, they are attitudes and behaviors that people
adopt according to the position that they hold. It depends on the job, family situation. Roles
influence how you think. Presidents and policy makers play roles and it derives 2 sets of
expectations about how an actor should think or behave.
Self expectations are one important source of roles, is based on what the individual
expects from himself
Expectations of others: the second source is how we behave because we thing about what
others thinks of ourselves, those expectations can be transmitted by critics, public opinion,
messages.
Role is not immutable for any give position; there is a less rigid position.
Group Decision Making behavior: people behave differently when they are in group than
alone.
-Causes of groupthink: the primary cause of groupthink is pressure within
decision making groups to achieve consensus. Consensus may be a true meeting
of minds but also the result of ignoring dissidents.
Effects of groupthink: the urge for consensus limits the policy choice available
and that the chances of a policy can be successful. Limited policy choices- the
adviser of Clinton said once that there is danger when people world well together
you can take the edge off options. One thing is that decision makers adhere to a
established policy or makes only marginal changes. Another thing is that they
adopt the lowest common denominator policy, the least objectional but not the
optimal.
The quality of policy choices- when there are poor decision they result in policy
failure.
Physical and mental health: this is also important for example President Woodrow
Wilsons health and psychological symptoms influence him to make the Treaty of
Versailles that ended WWI. He suffered from cardiovascular difficulties that is why he had
diminished emotional control, good suspicion, secrecy and lapses in judgment,
Few leaders suffer from mental problems maybe Stalin suffered from paranoia, Hitler
was disturbed things like alcohol or drugs can make matters worse for example in Hitlers
cases would have been worse. Another example is Yeltsin in Russia, he had cardio
surgery and he was weakened and incapacitated, he survived but during his mandate his
health was a worry.
Also egos and personal ambitions can influence policy mainly the ego. And also ambition
to remain in power, that happen in the missile crises where John said that Nikita cant do
that to him referring that the conflict was personal.
The past is a fourth factor that shapes the political leaders approach to world problems
Political history: historical analogies and how we interpret hictorical events creates
supposed lessons from the past to implement in policy making. For example when Bush
give a discourse when Hussein attacked Kuwait he said Saddam Hussein is an
aggressive dictator, half a century ago we had the change to stop a ruthless aggressor
and missed it. We will not make that mistake again. So historical analogies are used to
avoid thinking rather than to inform decision but also policy makers sometimes make
decision and then use a historical analogy to justify them
Personal experiences: they create negative impulses or positive for example
Jacque Chirac improved relations between Paris and Washington when he was
president, this because in part he liked American when he studied in Harvard
Perceptions: there is a real world but also the world that we perceive and these
perceptions are not the same, they are different.
-Characteristics of perceptions: one is the common characteristic of
thinking that other people and leaders see the world as we do. Second there is a
tendency to see the other counties as more hostile than ours. Third, we see the
behaviors of others as more centralized than ours. Finally, we tend to assume that
the others see our good intentions and that they are not suspicious or afraid of us
-The impact of perception: when perceptions are not accurate they distort
our images both of ourselves and of others. The degree of distortion depends on
how thick the lenses are. The link between perception and politics is the concept of
operational reality, not only reality is distorted by perceptions but we act based on
those perceptions. Also there is the operational code that describes how and
individual acts when faces specific types of situations and considering that leaders
take decisions on how they see politics works and what is the best way to act like
with rewards, threats, force or diplomacy.