National Choices and International Processes will be of interest to students and specialists in foreign policy and international relations theory.

This book focuses on the analysis of Golda Meir’s foreign decision making processes during her tenure as Prime Minister (1970-1973), offering three unique case studies. It exposes the political-diplomatic aspects of foreign policy, using interviews and analysis of hundreds of formerly secret documents from various national archives. Furthermore, it proposes a new, innovative form of analysis, termed the Holistic Combined Spiral Model (HCSM), based on exploring foreign decision making processes through the four leading existing theoretical approaches, namely rational, emotional, bureaucratic and irrational factors. The study explores the fields of leadership, government and foreign decision making through a holistic perspective in two integrated dimensions: first, the decision making process during periods of crisis, such as the Yom Kippur War, and, second, external influences, such as the relationships with the American government and between the superpowers. Furthermore, after revealing and analysing the factors and components of the foreign decision making process, this book appreciates the complexity of these processes, which, during the dynamic and changing times in which we live, world leaders have to master.

Why do countries give foreign aid? Although many countries have official development assistance programs, this book argues that no two of them see the purpose of these programmes in the same way. Moreover, the way countries frame that purpose has shaped aid policy choices past and present. The author examines how Belgium long gave aid out of a sense of obligation to its former colonies, The Netherlands was more interested in pursuing international influence, Italy has focused on the reputational payoffs of aid flows and Norwegian aid has had strong humanitarian motivations since the beginning. But at no time has a single frame shaped any one country's aid policy exclusively. Instead, analysing half a century of legislative debates on aid in these four countries, this book presents a unique picture both of cross-national and over time patterns in the salience of different aid frames and of varying aid programmes that resulted.

Under what conditions should we expect states to do things radically differently all of a sudden? In this book, David Welch seeks to answer this question, constructing a theory of foreign policy change inspired by organization theory, cognitive and motivational psychology, and prospect theory. He then "test drives" the theory in a series of comparative case studies in the security and trade domains: Argentina's decision to go to war over the Falklands/Malvinas vs. Japan's endless patience with diplomacy in its conflict with Russia over the Northern Territories; America's decision to commit large-scale military force to Vietnam vs. its ultimate decision to withdraw; and Canada's two abortive flirtations with free trade with the United States in 1911 and 1948 vs. its embrace of free trade in the late 1980s. Painful Choices has three main objectives: to determine whether the general theory project in the field of international relations can be redeemed, given disappointment with previous attempts; to reflect on what this reveals about the possibilities and limits of general theory; and to inform policy. Welch argues that earlier efforts at general theory erred by aiming to explain state behavior, which is an intractable problem. Instead, since inertia is the default expectation in international politics, all we need do is to explain changes in behavior. Painful Choices shows that this is a tractable problem with clear implications for intelligence analysts and negotiators.

Maoz views the evolution of international relations over the last two centuries as a set of interacting, cooperative and conflicting networks of states. The networks that emerged are the result of national choice processes about forming or breaking ties with other states. States are constantly concerned with their security and survival in an anarchic world. Their security concerns stem from their external environment and their past conflicts. Because many of them cannot ensure their security by their own power, they need allies to balance against a hostile international environment. The alliance choices made by states define the structure of security cooperation networks and spill over into other cooperative networks, including trade and institutions. Maoz tests his theory by applying social networks analysis (SNA) methods to international relations. He offers a novel perspective as a system of interrelated networks that co-evolve and interact with one another.

There are two dominant approaches to political decision making in general and foreign policy decision making in particular: rational choice and cognitive psychology. The essays here introduce and test the poliheuristic theory of decision making that integrates elements of both schools. The poliheuristic theory is able to account for the outcome and the process of decisions, and integrates across levels of analysis (individual, dyad, and group). The collection focuses on both elements of the theory itself and also looks at how the theory can be used to better understand political decisions that were made in the past.

Explains the origins and dynamics of enduring rivalries between countries