Leaders, Groups and Coalititions: Understanding the People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking (International Studies Review Presidential Series) - Softcover

How do we determine whose positions count in the making of foreign policy? Does it matter how these policymakers are configured? Does the decision-making process such people engage in influence the type of policy that results? This volume synthesizes the literatures on leadership, group dynamics, organizational theory, and coalition politics to demonstrate how the nature of the decision unit shapes foreign policy. Beginning with a systematic assessment of the position of decision-making theory in the study of international politics, contributors explore how policymakers' preferences become aggregated in the foreign policymaking process when there is a predominant leader or they are organized into single groups or coalitions. The book is comparative in nature examining the foreign policy decisions of countries from all regions of the world.

Joe D. Hagan is a Professor of Political Science at West Virginia University. Magaret G. Hermann is a Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University.