Foreign Policy Crisis Decision-Making

When we talk about the successes and failures of U.S. foreign policy in managing international crises—in the media, in classrooms, in everyday conversations—we inevitably focus on the individuals making decisions in Washington. While the president, the secretary of state, and other top officials are routinely viewed as key shapers of U.S. actions abroad, we rarely take the time to think carefully and analytically about how these actors view the world, how they arrive at their decisions, and how various psychological factors such as identity, belief, and emotion shape the policies they devise to promote U.S. interests abroad.