Explaining Foreign Policy
U.S. Decision-Making in the Gulf Wars
Second edition (2011)
Steve A. Yetiv
Dr. Steve A. Yetiv has developed an interdisciplinary, integrated approach to studying foreign policy decisions, which he applies here to understand better how and why the United States went to war in the Persian Gulf in 1991 and 2003.
Yetiv’s innovative method employs the rational actor, cognitive, domestic politics, groupthink, and bureaucratic politics models to explain the foreign policy behavior of governments. Drawing on the widest set of primary sources to date—including a trove of recently declassified documents—and on interviews with key actors, he applies these models to illuminate the decision-making process in the two Gulf Wars and to develop theoretical notions about foreign policy. What Yetiv discovers, in addition to original empirical evidence about U.S. decision making in the Persian Gulf and Iraq wars, is that no one approach provides the best explanation, but when all five are used, a fuller and more complete understanding emerges. The approach is also used to generate theoretical insights about foreign policy and international relations, and about how to bridge these two realms.
Thoroughly updated with a new preface and a chapter on the 2003 Iraq War, Explaining Foreign Policy, already widely used in courses, will continue to be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy, international relations, and related fields.
Reviews
"Rarely does one find a book that both thoroughly presents a theoretical framework and then actually tests that framework against reality by the rigorous use of history. Steve Yetiv . . . has done a remarkably good job of balancing both elements in a new study of US decision-making in the first Persian Gulf War . . . An important and timely contribution."-
Douglas A. Borer, Perspectives on Political Science
"He has developed an important approach to analyzing complex foreign policy decision-making."-Mark N. Katz, Comparative Strategy
"Using the Persian Gulf crisis of 1991 as a case study, Steve Yetiv examines how important foreign policy decisions are made. His fresh and interesting contribution brings together competing decision-making theories-rational choice, cognitive, domestic policy, organization, and groupthink-to produce a rich interpretation of the event. It is also novel in considering both U.S. and Iraqi decision-making processes. Intriguing, accessible, and useful, this book will appeal to students, experts, and general readers."
-Richard Herrmann, Director of the Mershon Center at the Ohio State University
"An impressive foreign-policy analysis of US decision-making in the Persian Gulf War . . . A well-researched and highly readable book."
-Lee Marsden, Political Studies Review
"Whether or not Explaining Foreign Policy ultimately takes its place beside Essence of Decision as a seminal work in the field, the book serves the same function in challenging analysts to question conventional models and accommodate complexity in the scholarly study of foreign policy."
-Steven W. Hook, Perspectives on Politics
Adoptions of Steve A. Yetiv's Explaining Foreign Policy
Explaining Foreign Policy is an original, academic work which has penetrated the graduate and undergraduate classroom. According to Johns Hopkins University Press, it has been adopted by the following universities (as of February 2007), with many more using parts of the work:
University of Alberta, Albright, American University, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Carleton, UCLA, University of Cinncinati, University of Colorado, UConn, Cornell, University of Denver, Univ. of Georgia, Georgetown, Heidelberg College, University of Helsinki, University of Kansas, Keene State, Kent State, University of Memphis, Mercyhurst, Metro State University, Michigan State, Naval Post-Graduate School, Ohio State University, Rider University, University of St. Andrews, University of Southern California, Sweet Briar, West Virginia University, Yale.
March, Foreign Policy
6 x 9, 336 pp., 1 line drawing
978-0-8018-9893-8 0-8018-9893-5 $60.00(s) / £31.00 hc
978-0-8018-9894-5 0-8018-9894-3 $25.00(s) / £13.00 pb
To order the 2011 2nd edition of Explaining Foreign Policy, one can go to Amazon.com or to the Johns Hopkins University Press
