The Structure of Decision Making

Abstract

No two individual estimates of how national interests are formulated are likely to be identical as they depend upon the position one chooses on a whole number of issues, the major ones of which are discussed in the following chapter. All comprehensive accounts must, however, include three distinct elements which can be regarded as independent and simultaneously interconnected variables: the decision makers and their international and domestic environments. A behaviourally oriented analysis must also include the concept of ‘the image’ held by the decision makers of their environment which is an intervening variable between them.