Description
Why did Volodymyr Zelensky doubt that Russia was preparing a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022? Why did British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain decide to "do business with Herr Hitler" in Munich in 1938? And how was it that Israeli elites dismissed intelligence warnings of the Hamas attack in 2023? Had they not learned their lesson from the Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur fifty years earlier?
In all these cases, smart decision-makers misjudged their adversaries, largely because they failed to understand how their enemies' actions and strategies were shaped by different values and beliefs to their own. We may think such beliefs are irrational merely because we do not share them. They may appear confusing and ill-judged. But as Beatrice Heuser ably shows in this pithy book, strategy-making is a tricky business, marred by bias, irrationality, bureaucratic politics, colliding government interests, and complex procedures and structures. Assessing our adversaries as 'rational actors' is a dangerous game that can lead to flawed and, on occasions, catastrophically bad decisions. This book explains why.
About the Author
Beatrice Heuser is Chair of International Relations at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of many books on the history of strategic thought and defence policy.
Reviews
"This provocative book shows that attempts to analyse adversarial decision makers in mechanistic terms, either as rational actors driven by mathematical adherence to cost-benefit economics, or in adherence to some international relations theory, are fallacious. It shows that decision-making is emotive, political, and all too human. This book exposes, with searing insight, the biases, influences, and outright failures that punctuate our history."
Robert Johnson, University of Oxford
Book Information
ISBN 9781509566709
Author Beatrice Heuser
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Polity Press
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
In all these cases, smart decision-makers misjudged their adversaries, largely because they failed to understand how their enemies' actions and strategies were shaped by different values and beliefs to their own. We may think such beliefs are irrational merely because we do not share them. They may appear confusing and ill-judged. But as Beatrice Heuser ably shows in this pithy book, strategy-making is a tricky business, marred by bias, irrationality, bureaucratic politics, colliding government interests, and complex procedures and structures. Assessing our adversaries as 'rational actors' is a dangerous game that can lead to flawed and, on occasions, catastrophically bad decisions. This book explains why.
About the Author
Beatrice Heuser is Chair of International Relations at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of many books on the history of strategic thought and defence policy.
Reviews
"This provocative book shows that attempts to analyse adversarial decision makers in mechanistic terms, either as rational actors driven by mathematical adherence to cost-benefit economics, or in adherence to some international relations theory, are fallacious. It shows that decision-making is emotive, political, and all too human. This book exposes, with searing insight, the biases, influences, and outright failures that punctuate our history."
Robert Johnson, University of Oxford
Book Information
ISBN 9781509566709
Author Beatrice Heuser
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Polity Press
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
