National Security through a Cockeyed Lens by Steve A Yetiv

National Security through a Cockeyed Lens by Steve A Yetiv

"How do mental errors or cognitive biases undermine good decision making?" This is the question Steve A. Yetiv takes up in his latest foreign policy study, National Security through a Cockeyed Lens. Yetiv draws on four decades of psychological, historical, and political science research on cognitive biases to illuminate some of the key pitfalls in our leaders' decision-making processes and some of the mental errors we make in perceiving ourselves and the world. Tracing five U.S. national security episodes - the 1979 Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan; the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan administration; the rise of al-Qaeda, leading to the 9/11 attacks; the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq; and the development of U.S. energy policy - Yetiv reveals how a dozen cognitive biases have been more influential in impacting U.S. national security than commonly believed or understood. Identifying a primary bias in each episode-disconnect of perception versus reality, tunnel vision ("focus feature"), distorted perception ("cockeyed lens"), overconfidence, and short-term thinking - Yetiv explains how each bias drove the decision-making process and what the outcomes were for the various actors. His concluding chapter examines a range of debiasing techniques, exploring how they can improve decision making.

This provides an American foreign policy expert's survey of security studies and new methods of analyzing and understanding international politicsHighly recommended for any college-level political science collection! Midwest Book Review National Security through a Cockeyed Lens is an interesting read for anyone seeking to understand how seemingly poor decisions can be made at critical junctures. Middle East Journal National Security through a Cockeyed Lens serves as a seminal work, instructive for scholars and decision makers alike... Yetiv's volume could be one of the key books for presidents and their advisers to read before they begin making decisions... -- William W. Newmann H-Diplo The principles in this book deserve wide recognition. Yetiv places necessary focus on lapses in decision making that are important to acknowledge. -- James Lebovic Political Science Quarterly

Steve A. Yetiv is a professor of political science at Old Dominion University and author of The Absence of Grand Strategy: The United States in the Persian Gulf, 1972-2005 and Explaining Foreign Policy: U.S. Decision-Making in the Gulf Wars, both published by Johns Hopkins.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781421411255
ISBN 10	1421411253
Title	National Security through a Cockeyed Lens
Author	Steve A Yetiv
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Johns Hopkins University Press
Year published	2014-01-26
Number of pages	168
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.