INTL 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Rationality, Risk Aversion

• School: VCU
• Department: International Studies
• Course: INTL 105
• Professor: Christopher J Saladino

Document Summary

Strategy -- even though each policy may not be strategic in stand alone way, together they are strategic: decision-making -- decision makers matter (individuals and rational states now matter, they both make decisions) By focusing on rational states, now have to question if/how often individuals are. Individuals -- individuals role is much greater, individuals matter; look at individual case actions and how it matches up to rationality, context, and strategy: rationality. Foreign policy = strategy to achieve state interest: defined as a rational porcess. Spells out goals and objectives, spells out tactics or methods. Role of the individuals -- they make decisions, individuals matter (ind. Ir theory wants to predict general outcomes. Foreign policy determines how and when specific outcomes will take place. Three primary variables to consider (looks a lot like levels of analysis) when making the decisions. 1: type of state and society they function in. Type or regime: population size, population size, natural resources, history, political culture.