Previous studies of foreign policy decision making have largely focused on the choice among specified options rather than the prior question of how the options were specified in the first place. Such 'problem representation' is the focus of this volume, which was originally published in 1998. How do the game theorists' options and utilities come about? Concretely, for example, how and why in the Cuban missile crisis were blockade, air strike, and invasion chosen as options? To answer such questions, the editors contend the representation of the problem to which the options are a response, the determinants of that representation, and its ramifications must all be analyzed. The contributors to the volume consider these issues both conceptually and empirically, employing the methods of both international relations and political psychology.
• Addresses important issues in both international relations and political psychology • Includes both conceptual and empirical chapters • Addresses such thorny issues in the study of problem representation as group decisions, re-representation, and relationship to types of reasoning
Contents
Part I. Introducing Problem Presentation: 1. Introduction Donald A. Sylvan; 2. On the representation of problems: an informative processing approach to foreign policy decision making James F. Voss; Part II. Overarching Conceptual Issues: 3. The interpretation of foreign policy events: a cognitive process theory Charles S. Taber; 4. Problem identification in sequential policy decision making: the re-representation of problems Robert Billings and Charles F. Hermann; 5. Collective interpretations: how problem representations aggregate in foreign policy groups Ryan Beasley; 6. Image change and problem representation after the Cold War Martha Cottam and Dorcas E. McCoy: Part III. Empirical Analysis: 7. Problem representations and political expertise: evidence from 'think aloud' protocols of South African elite Helen Purkitt; 8. Reasoning and problem representation in foreign policy: groups, individuals, and stories Donald A. Sylvan and Deborah M. Haddad; 9. Representing problem representation Michael Young; 10. A problem solving perspective on decision-making processes and political strategies in committees Katherine Gannon; 11. When gender goes to combat: the impact of representations in collective decision-making Silvana Rubino-Hallman; 12. Representation of the Gulf Crisis as derived from the US Senate debate James F. Voss, Jennifer Wiley, Joel Kennet, Tonya Schooler and Laurie Ney Silfies; 13. Configuring issue areas: Belgian and Dutch representations of the role in foreign assistance in foreign policy Marijke Breuning; Part IV. Conclusion: 14. Reflecting on the study of problem representation: how are we studying it and what are we learning? Donald A. Sylvan.
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