Christer Pursiainen - The Psychology of Foreign Policy

The Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology book series profiles a range of innovative contributions that investigate the leading political issues and perspectives of our time. The academic field of political psychology has been developing for almost fifty years and is now a well-established subfield of enquiry in the North American academy. In the context of new global forces of political challenge and change as well as rapidly evolving political practices and political identities, Palgrave Studies in Political Psychology builds upon the North American foundations through profiling studies from Europe and the broader global context. From a theoretical perspective, the series incorporates constructionist, historical, (post)structuralist, and postcolonial analyses. Methodologically, the series is open to a range of approaches to political psychology. Psychoanalytic approaches, critical social psychology, critical discourse analysis, Social Identity Theory, rhetorical analysis, social representations, and a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies exemplify the range of approaches to the empirical world welcomed in the series. The series integrates approaches to political psychology that address matters of urgency and concern from a global perspective, including theories and perspectives on world politics and a range of international issues: the rise of social protest movements for democratic change, notably in the global South and the Middle East; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its broader implications; patterns of global migration and associated challenges of integration and religious accommodation; the formation and deformation of political, economic, and strategic transnational entities such as the European Union; conflicts and violence resulting from local and regional nationalisms; emerging political movements of the new left and the new right; ethnic violence; legacies of war and colonization; and class conflict. To submit a proposal, please contact Senior Editor Ambra Finotello ambra.finotello@palgrave.com.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14600

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This book focuses on the role of psychological theories in International Relations (IR) and its subfield Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), with a particular emphasis on decision-making. From time to time, every academic field requires comprehensive reappraisal to gain a clearer understanding of the state of the art, and to further its development. We considered that a thoroughly researched, critical and updated analysis of the current field would not be out of place at the present time.

Our fervent wish is to make a meaningful contribution to the debates on our subject. The book paints a detailed picture of its subject area, making a holistic, structured and comparative case for the significance of psychological factors in the study and practice of foreign policy decision-making. We will highlight the achievements and potential of the diversity of psychological theories, as well as identify their challenges and limitations. While being pluralistic in its theoretical and methodological spirit, the book introduces well-justified alternative angles to explore the roots, processes, and outcomes of foreign policy decision-making.

We envisage that the audience for the book will comprise scholars and students of IR, FPA, political psychology, and beyond. For those already specialized in psychological theories with a view to understanding or explaining foreign policies, the book aspires to become a source of inspiration and critical thinking both now and in the future. The content also contributes to more general IR debates about such issues as levels of analysis, agentstructure relations, cause and effect, rationality, and the reliability and validity of research methodology and data-gathering, among many other topics.

We maintain that psychology is ever-present in any decision-making and should be taken into account in efforts to explain or understand foreign policy. This is not a ground-breaking claim as such, and is more akin to common sense. Yet we argue that this notion is not duly reflected in the mainstream study of international politics. In our discussions with our colleagues, our aim has sometimes been referred to as a call to take agency seriously. We hope to take some steps towards that goal.

Our comparative look at the array of psychological theories that are applicable to foreign policy studies shows that the research field itself is far from monolithic. It is in essence a diverse collection of approaches based on widely different ontological, epistemological and axiological assumptions, as well as methodological solutions and practices. This obviously presents a challenge to the efforts to integrate such a complex and incoherent field more closely into IR. Given the breadth of the theme in general, we inevitably pose more immediate questions and problems than we provide definitive answers and solutions. Yet the book seeks to identify the key challenges of the subject and provide some promising directions for addressing them.