Foreign PolicyThe Individual Level

There are differences between human beings rather than similarities.

Not all humans have the same nature. Some humans are clearly more capable than others.

The Individual Level

The mind of a policymaker is not a tabula rasait contains complex and intricately related information and thought patterns, such as beliefs, attitudes, values, experience, emotions, operational style, memory and national selfconceptions.

The Individual Level

Differences in the psychological make-up of individuals are important to the understanding of foreign policy.
Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Mikhael Gorbachev, George Bush Sr., Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and George Bush Jr., etc.

Do Individuals matter?

The individual characteristics of the decision-makersskills, personalities, beliefs, psychological predisposition, values, talents, and prior experiencesmatter in FP. The premise that an individual decisionmakers attributes are source of FP rests on the belief that decisionmakers possess unique personal qualities that are constant and stable.

When do Individuals Matter?

-when the formal and constitutional procedures require so. -when a leader is permitted great latitude and discretion to make decision.

The Individual

-when a leader has a high degree of interest in the issue and decision.
-when only one institution is responsible for the decision.

When do individuals

-when the decision is not routine or unanticipatedcrisis.

-when the information is lacking or overwhelming. -when the top decisionmaker has little experience. -during situations. stressful

Rational Actor Model

Decisions made by individual leaders are seen as the decisions of the state. This is because leaders act in the way consistent with the long-terms and persistent national interests of the state. This is because culture and socialization produce regularities among the individuals who rise to national office eliminating individual differences.

Rational Actor Model

Decision-makers examine the internal and external environments. Define the situation on hand and consider alternative course of actions. Select the course of action best suited to the national interests.

Psychological Needs Theory

Psychological Needs Maslows hierarchy of needs: 1) physical; 2) safety needs; 3) affection and belongness needs;4) Esteem needs; 5) selfactualizationimplications people with high self-esteem are more trusting and more opposed to the use of force, while people with low-esteem are more likely to use force. Deprivation lead to poweroriented people who tend to dominate others, to be argumentative, to be paranoid, to have very little humanitarian concern, and to be hesitant to take risk. Kissingers analysis of Soviet leadership in the 60s and mainstream American analysis of revolutionary regimes

Personality Traits
Personality Traitssome personality types have special relevance for the topic of foreign policy: dogmatic personality; authoritarian personality; extroverted versus introvert personalities; risk acceptant versus risk averse; and narcissistic personalities.

James David Barbers Presidential Style

Refers to the fourfold categorization for leaders using the axelsActivePassive/Negative-Positive. The first axel taps into the leaders energy level and sense of satisfaction in his job (Image of their job description); the second axel looks into his difficulty in effecting change and lower level of job satisfaction (level of commitment to their jobs).

Presidential Characters: Active Versus Passive

Active Presidents are movers and shakers, energetically engaged in the challenge of leading, eagerly attentive to the responsibilities of the office, and willing to accept risk; Passive Presidents refer to steer an even and face course, maintaining current arrangements and avoiding conflicts that invariably accompany changes.

Presidential Characters: Positive-Negative

Positive presidentsenjoy their jobs, the demands that go with them and the perks that go along with the positions. Negative presidentsdo not enjoy their positions and look at with disfavor on the burden of responsibility. They dutifully accept but do not enjoy the demands that go along with the position.

Presidential Types
Styles Active Passive

Positive

want to achieve want to remain in results and effect power. changes.

Negative

want to be tend to be accepted and are democratic and after affection. tend to emphasize civil values and responsibilities.

Style

Active

Passive

Presidential Types
Positive Not driven by twisted and dark motives. Are willing to work and effect improvements or changes in the system. Compelled to power by deep-seated feelings of inadequacy and fear of humiliation and ostracism. They want to be feared than loved. They can break rules in order to maintain power

Negative

They take the mantle of power out of obligation or duty, not of the desire for power and control.

They focus on the issues of acceptance and affiliation. Prone to graft and corruption.

Classifications
Styles Positive Negative

Active

Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy; George Bush; Bill Clinton

Woodrow Wilson; Lyndon Johnson; Richard Nixon

Positive

William Taft; Ronald Reagan

Dwight Eisenhower and Calvin Colledge

Cognition, Belief System, and Misperception

Refers to the mental filters that help decision-makers decide when sensory inputs are worthy of more detailed processing. These filters might include stereotypes, biases, and heuristic--are all mental short-cuts that help the mind decide which sensory inputs should be focused upon given the situation.

Pyschohistory
Psychological problems usually affect high government officials and political leaders cases of Joseph Stalin, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon. Leaders, generally, have neurotic personality. This refers to people who possessed an idealized images of themselves as heroic figures. They are supposed to intense ego defense mechanism. The need to protect ones selfesteem and defend against anxiety caused by frustration.

Stress
Ancient biological mechanism developed to prepare human beings for stressful encounters may actually distract humans from dealing with stressful situations. Stress has some debilitating effects on the ability of individuals to react rationally to their environment. They may also cause physical illness and mental disorder to decision-makers. (Cases the British leadership during the Suez Canal Crisis and the captain of the Vincennes in July 1988)

What about misperception?

Human belief system or world view affect how leaders make sense of the world and respond to world events: Sprout and Sprout the psychological milieu and the operational milieu; Alexander Georges operational code (philosophical and instrumental code for understanding a leaders view toward politics) cognitive consistency and cognitive dissonance; inherent bad faith model of politics; and evoke sets and images of the lessons of history.

Misperception

Alexander Georges Operational Codes for Decision-makers particular set of beliefs about international affairs. It affects the decisionmakers perception and responses to international events.

Motivational Factors for Misperception

All human beings have the strong needs to construct and maintain a highly ideological image of ourselves and our environment. Decision-makers strive for cognitive consistency and will cling to their old images if there is limited information or the situation is extremely complex.

Misperception
In face of rapidly changing environment, DM will: ignore or reject new information; discredit the source of new information; twist or distort the information; search for other information that will conform to the old image; or simply treat the new information as the exception which proves the rule.

National Self-Image or Conception?

Political leaders have some view of their own states and their place in the world: These views include: 1)the other side has more hostile intention; 2) inaccurate perception of the relative balance of power between one-self and one opposed; 3) perception that war is inevitable; 4) perception that war is relatively inexpensive and short; misperceptions of intentions of third states; misperception of oneself and the opponents image of oneself.

Tit for Tat and Evoke Images

Perceptions or misperception may intervene in the stimulusresponse process that can either accelerate or decelerate a crisis. Certain events can affect how we will interpret information from environment by creating predispositions to notice certain things and ignore others.

Limits of the First Level Analysis

Any of these variables could play an important role in the FPP. Decision-making is not always an individual process, often it is a collective political process. This ignores the dynamic function of the role source the impact of the office and status on the behavior of its occupant. Socially prescribed behaviors and legally sanctioned norms attached to the position also affect decision-makers.