Eric Singer - Political Psychology and Foreign Policy

First published 1992 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Political psychology and foreign policy / edited by Eric Singer and

Valerie Hudson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. International relationsPsychological aspects.

2. International relationsDecision making. 3. Political

psychology. 4. Decision-making, Group. I. Singer, Eric.

II. Hudson, Valerie M., 1958-

JX1255.P64 1992

327.019dc20

91-46522
CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28353-7 (hbk)

In the early 1980s, I observed that scholars in international relations and foreign policy were increasingly looking inside the black box to study the people involved in making foreign policy decisions. Instead of opening a Pandoras box, such research was providing insights into when and how individuals can influence the nature of governments foreign policy behavior. Now, a new field, political psychology, has come of age. One of the issues of particular interest to political psychologists centers around how foreign policy decisions are made.

The psychological phenomena that political psychologists examine have to do with how individuals perceive, interpret, feel about, and react to their environment. The political factors have to do with the activities involved in governing or the making of public policythat is, with how the material and human resources of a collectivity are allocated. In effect, political psychology marries these two types of phenomena, and of particular interest is how people perceive, interpret, feel about, and react in settings where public policy is being made or governance is at issue.

Sometimes the focus of political psychology is on the bride in the marriage, and researchers examine what it is about the individual and his or her experience that results in a particular way of perceiving, interpreting, feeling about, or reacting to a public policy issue. At other times, political psychologists turn to the groom in the marriage and study who makes public policy, how, and with what effect on members of the collectivity. The focus is now on the political phenomena but at the individual or psychological level of analysis. At still other times, the concern of political psychology turns to the relationship between the bride and groom. For example, why does a particular psychological factor lead to different kinds of effects in different types of governing bodiesfor example, the various effects of psychological dependence on shaping political behavior in democratic and nondemocratic Asian countries. The emphasis here is on both psychological and political phenomena and how each affects the other. In the chapters that follow, there are examples of all three of these ways of weaving psychological and political phenomena together.

Much of the research on foreign policy decision making from a political psychology perspective proceeds from the idea that decisions exhibit bounded rationality. By that term, I mean decisions evince a reasonable process for choosing based on the goals of the choosing organism, the information and conceptualization it has of the situation, and its ability to draw inferences from the information it possesses. Instead of assuming that decisions are made by unitary actorswhether by the United States, Moscow, or the Palestine Liberation Organizationthese researchers have opened up the black box to explore how the structure of and process within the decision-making unit affect policy making. Although these scholars recognize that numerous domestic and international factors can and do influence foreign policy, they perceive that these influences are channeled through the people and the political structure of a government that identify, decide, and implement foreign policy decisions.

Researchers in this area also make several other assumptions. Although individuals interpret and define foreign policy problems and propose options, foreign policy decisions are generally made by groups. In effect, such decisions are made by individuals configured in groups ranging from cabinets to advisory groups, interagency committees, chiefs of staff, and juntas. Foreign policy decisions usually involve problems that are ill-structured, uncertainty about what is happening and/or what can be done, competing values, and the perception that there will be a penalty or cost if action is deferred. Certainly, there is no correct answer to such problems, and all possible options and all possible consequences are not known. Members of foreign policy-making groups also often have different status, representations of the problem, motives, levels of expertise, and preferences for solutions.

Of interest to political psychologists examining foreign policy decision making are the answers to six questions that link psychological and political processes. From psychology, they want to know (1) how individual members of the decision-making group define the issue and apprehend the problem; (2) how the members draw upon past experience, information, and learned skills to explore the relationship between the defined problem and possible means of coping with it; and (3) how the members develop a disposition toward one solution or approach and, if necessary, adjust it based on interaction with others. In other words, assuming that foreign policy problems are complex, full of uncertainties, and beset by value conflicts and time constraints, how do individual members of decision-making groups develop a view of what the problem involves, decide what they want to see happen, and arrive at a preference for a way of handling the problem? From political science, these scholars want to ascertain (4) how the distribution of power and authority among members of the group and other group structural properties affect who is involved in decision making; (5) how and what information is shared and considered by members of the group; and (6) how disagreements among members of the group are handled. In effect, what are the relationships of the members of the group and what kinds of rules have they developed to facilitate decision making?

Information in these six areas helps scholars know whose positions count, that is, which members must have some input into the decision because of their status or power in the group; the way these more powerful members represent the problem, the outcomes they prefer, and their preferred way of dealing with the problem; the roles these members are likely to play because of their views on the problem and their preferred outcomes; and the nature of the norms and decision rules that are likely to determine how information and disagreements among these members are managed. Of interest are the procedures group members develop that make it easier to deal with the next set of problems. In effect, the nature of the power distribution among the members of the group and the ways the group handles information and conflictthe politics of the groupdefine the subgroup of individuals who will be making the decision and the rules they are likely to follow in the decision-making process. These individuals understandings of the problem and their preferences for outcomes and alternative ways of dealing with the problemthe psychology of group membersshape the nature of the decision.