The poliheuristic (PH) theory of decision making has made important contributions to our understanding of political decision making but remains silent about certain key aspects of the decision process. Specifically, PH theory contends that leaders screen out politically unacceptable options, but...

“Problem representation†and “ontology†are introduced as concepts critical to understanding foreign policy decision making. The article explicates these concepts and their relationship and focuses on such issues of representation rather than veridical descriptions of...

Effects of sharp increases in military assistance on international conflict and cooperation on the part of recipient nations are investigated. Since traditional bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques are often conceptually inapplicable to this subject matter, a quasi-experimental...

An approach to planning foreign policy systematically is presented. It is seen as an appropriate planning aid in situations where some form of goals can be stated, the subject matter is “well understood,†and potential disturbances in the patterns of interrelationship between variables...

Despite its widespread use in studies of domestic political institutions, the concept of “independence†has not been systematically applied to the study of international institutions. Most arguments regarding the ability of international organizations (IOs) to promote cooperation and...

Proponents of offense-defense theory (ODT) contend that the offense-defense balance (ODB) forms the “master key†to understanding the question of peace and war. Time-series event count models of war and militarized interstate disputes at the systemic level are used to test the...