Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR

In the last few decades, a new wave of behavioral research has become prominent in International Relations (IR) and led to a welcome expansion of laboratory experiments as well as stimulating dialogues with neurosciences, biology, and genetics. Simultaneously, the study of leaders and their advisers...

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Main Authors: He, Wendy, Vennesson, Pascal
Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/180542
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1805422024-10-13T15:42:25Z Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR He, Wendy Vennesson, Pascal S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Social Sciences Practice Cognition Critical decision method Foreign policy decision-making Historical case studies Psychology War decision-making In the last few decades, a new wave of behavioral research has become prominent in International Relations (IR) and led to a welcome expansion of laboratory experiments as well as stimulating dialogues with neurosciences, biology, and genetics. Simultaneously, the study of leaders and their advisers has made a significant comeback. However, in the qualitative study of real-world foreign policy decisions, little progress has been made to provide IR researchers with a strategy to collect data on the mental processes of leaders and advisers. In this paper we introduce the Critical Decision Method (CDM) and adapt it to historical case studies research in IR. We show how the CDM makes the data collection on cognition more systematic and replicable by providing an 11-item checklist to guide observations on how the human mind works in crisis situations. We argue that this data collection strategy helps bring together insights which shed new light on President Truman’s decision to intervene in the Korean War. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that fast foreign policy decisions tend to be flawed, Truman’s quick decision was well adapted to the circumstances. Ministry of Education (MOE) Submitted/Accepted version This research is supported by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (2019-T1-001-170). 2024-10-11T02:20:55Z 2024-10-11T02:20:55Z 2024 Journal Article He, W. & Vennesson, P. (2024). Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR. International Studies Perspectives. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/isp/ekae017 1528-3585 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/180542 10.1093/isp/ekae017 en 2019-T1-001-170 International Studies Perspectives © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association. All rights reserved. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the copyright holder. The Version of Record is available online at http://doi.org/10.1093/isp/ekae017. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social Sciences
Practice
Cognition
Critical decision method
Foreign policy decision-making
Historical case studies
Psychology
War decision-making
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Practice
Cognition
Critical decision method
Foreign policy decision-making
Historical case studies
Psychology
War decision-making
He, Wendy
Vennesson, Pascal
Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR
description In the last few decades, a new wave of behavioral research has become prominent in International Relations (IR) and led to a welcome expansion of laboratory experiments as well as stimulating dialogues with neurosciences, biology, and genetics. Simultaneously, the study of leaders and their advisers has made a significant comeback. However, in the qualitative study of real-world foreign policy decisions, little progress has been made to provide IR researchers with a strategy to collect data on the mental processes of leaders and advisers. In this paper we introduce the Critical Decision Method (CDM) and adapt it to historical case studies research in IR. We show how the CDM makes the data collection on cognition more systematic and replicable by providing an 11-item checklist to guide observations on how the human mind works in crisis situations. We argue that this data collection strategy helps bring together insights which shed new light on President Truman’s decision to intervene in the Korean War. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that fast foreign policy decisions tend to be flawed, Truman’s quick decision was well adapted to the circumstances.
author2 S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
author_facet S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
He, Wendy
Vennesson, Pascal
format Article
author He, Wendy
Vennesson, Pascal
author_sort He, Wendy
title Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR
title_short Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR
title_full Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR
title_fullStr Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR
title_full_unstemmed Getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in IR
title_sort getting inside the mind of leaders and advisers: a data collection strategy for historical case studies in ir
publishDate 2024
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/180542
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