Robert Jervis - Perception And Level Of Analysis :: essays research papers

Robert Jervis in Perception and Level of epitome espouses the notion that in order to fully explain crucial decisions and policies it is essential that one pays heed to the decision-makers beliefs about the world and his or her perceptions of others. instead than attempting to understand foreign policies as directly resulting from the three other directs of analysis, the bureaucratic, the domestic, and the internationalist environment, which he outlines, Jervis contends that examination of a decision-makers perceptions, both their causes and effects, can to a greater extent readily determine and explain behavioral patterns in such a light, the taxonomy or three other levels of analysis appear devoid of impartiality value when applied alone, and all related theories atomic number 18 shown as hinder except in extreme cases. Nonetheless, one might more accurately contest that while careful study of a decision-makers beliefs is a necessity for comprehension, analysis of such beli efs is in fact an examination of bureaucratic organizations, domestic circumstances, and the international environment all four are co-ordinated in the sense that the perceptions of the decision-maker are influenced by the circumstances existent in the three other levels. Likewise the three levels are themselves affected and a great deal altered by the politicians choices. Therefore, in order to give up the most comprehensive explanations of foreign polity decisions one cannot completely dismiss externalities, and conversely one cannot ignore individual perceptions of decision-makers.One cannot rely simply on the bureaucratic level of analysis, the domestic, the international environment, or even on a combination of the three as adequate. What one might witness as a clash of bureaucratic interests and stands yielding incoherent and unlike policies, could in reality be a clash among values that are widely held in both society and the decision-makers own minds (Jervis 28). Sim ilarly, if domestic situations were the middling upon which politicians base their decisions then changes in leadership would not necessarily heighten significant changes in foreign policy however, the consistency of foreign policy is difficult to measure. For example, some might contend that the Cold War would not have occurred had President Franklin Delano Roosevelt not died they suggest that his death altered American policy in the sense that President Truman and his anti-Soviet position came to dominate governmental decision-making. Others contest that FDR would have acted similarly to Truman, as he too was flood tide to an anti-Soviet stance prior to his death. If the former is seen as accurate the domestic level of analysis is insufficient and not applicable, but in the latter pillowcase it could be viewed as a valid basis for judging decision-making.