Decision-making in Russia’s Foreign Policy Modelling Russia’s Decision-Making with reference to Ukraine and Moldova (2004-2018)

There is a substantial body of literature on Russian foreign policy; however, the decision-making aspect remains comparatively less explored. The ambition of this research developed in two directions; on a practical level, it contributes to knowledge on Russia’s foreign policy decision-making and, on a conceptual plane, to scholarship by way of theory development, underpinning academic research on decision-making in foreign policy. Russia’s decision-making was first viewed through the prism of the Rational Actor Model and Incrementalism; however, their utility was found to be limited. Blended models also did not figure strongly. Through the prism of author’s proposed model of Strategic Incrementalism and its principles, this research demonstrates that Russia’s foreign-policy decision-making is far from a case of ‘muddling through,’ it retains a long-term purposefulness, and that its incremental decisions are guided by farsightedness. The simplicity and general applicability of the model potentially suggest its broader utility.

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Decision Making Theories in Foreign Policy Analysis

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.405 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Alex Mintz ◽

Amnon Sofrin

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Foreign Policy ◽

Decision Rules ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Bureaucratic Politics ◽

Group Model ◽

Foreign Policy Analysis ◽

Actor Model ◽

Policy Decision Making ◽

Unique Decision

Key theories of foreign policymaking include: the rational actor model, prospect theory, poliheuristic theory, cybernetic theory, bureaucratic politics, and organizational politics; and, at the group level, groupthink, polythink, and con-div. These theories are based on unique decision rules, including maximizing, satisficing, elimination by aspect, lexicographic, etc. A new, two-group model of foreign policy decision-making includes a decision design group and a decision approval group.

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Critiques of the Rational Actor Model and Foreign Policy Decision Making

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.474 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Chris Alden

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Foreign Policy ◽

Critical Role ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Rational Approach ◽

Foreign Policy Analysis ◽

Actor Model ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Policy Decision Making ◽

The Many

Foreign policy decision making has been and remains at the core of foreign policy analysis and its enduring contribution to international relations. The adoption of rationalist approaches to foreign policy decision making, predicated on an actor-specific analysis, paved the way for scholarship that sought to unpack the sources of foreign policy through a graduated assessment of differing levels of analysis. The diversity of inputs into the foreign policy process and, as depicted through a rationalist decision-making lens, the centrality of a search for utility and the impulse toward compensation in “trade-offs” between predisposed preferences, plays a critical role in enriching our understanding of how that process operates. FPA scholars have devoted much of their work to pointing out the many flaws in rationalist depictions of the decision-making process, built on a set of unsustainable assumptions and with limited recognition of distortions underlined in studies drawn from literature on psychology, cognition, and the study of organizations. At the same time, proponents of rational choice have sought to recalibrate the rational approach to decision making to account for these critiques and, in so doing, build a more robust explanatory model of foreign policy.

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Foreign Policy Decision-Making in A Long-term Conflict : India & Pakistan, 1947-2000

military history ◽

10.29212/mh.2007..64.297 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol null (64) ◽

pp. 297-333

Author(s):

Keung Ryong Chang

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Foreign Policy ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Policy Decision Making

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Foreign Policy Decision-Making in Nigeria. By Ufot B. Inamete. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 2001. 313p. $48.50.

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055402260475 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 96 (4) ◽

pp. 882-883

Author(s):

Michael Anda

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Foreign Policy ◽

Process Model ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Organizational Structures ◽

Bureaucratic Politics ◽

Actor Model ◽

Foreign Policies ◽

Policy Decision Making ◽

Independent Country

This elaborate study analyzes the Nigerian foreign policy decision-making structures and processes from 1960 (when Nigeria became an independent country) until 1999. Using Graham Allison's conceptual models of decision making (the rational-actor model, the organizational process model, and the bureaucratic politics model), Ufot Inamete examines how foreign policy decision making during the Balewa, Ironsi, Gowon, Muhammed/Obasanjo, Shagari, Buhari, Babangida, Shonekan, Abacha, Abubakar, and Obasanjo governments manifested both changes and continuities (p. 289). Importantly, theory from Allison's model is well integrated with the substantive and analytical portions of the book, and, thus, it goes beyond the theory of a strong-leader approach in Third World countries to demonstrate that developing countries do have organizational structures that deal with foreign policies.

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