Cognitive Structure and Foreign Policy Change

Israel's Decision to Talk to the PLO

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4444600
AutoresGuy Ziv (0009-0008-7929-836X, American University, Washington, DC, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen25
Número4
Páginas426-454
Fecha de publicación2011-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Relations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0047-1178 • E-ISSN: 1741-2862
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0047117811404580
OpenAlexW2158357260
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11

Rationalist explanations of foreign policy change are underdetermined because they overlook the decision-makers themselves. Insight from cognitive psychology shows that individuals' cognitive structures provide a useful lens through which to understand why some people are more likely than others to change their core beliefs. Two related cognitive variables - cognitive openness and cognitive complexity - hold promise for enhancing extant explanations of foreign policy change. This article assesses the cognitive structure of the three leaders who dominated Israeli decision-making in the decade leading up to Israel's dramatic policy change vis-à-vis the PLO in 1993: Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. The article demonstrates that Peres, who is found to be the most cognitively open and complex, was quicker to embrace a dialogue with the PLO than Rabin, while Shamir, who is found to hold the lowest levels of openness and complexity, rejected this move altogether. Peres, and to a lesser extent Rabin, proved to be more sensitive to international, regional and domestic changes than Shamir. This case illustrates that systemic-structural and domestic political factors are necessary, but insufficient, conditions for foreign policy change. The levels of decision-makers' cognitive openness and complexity are key to determining the likelihood that they will change their beliefs on a core policy issue that can, in turn, lead to foreign policy change. This article thus contributes to our understanding of both foreign policy change and the process leading up to the historic 1993 agreement between Israel and the PLO

Cognition · Core (optical fiber) · Economics · Foreign policy · Openness to experience · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Sociology · Computer Science · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Psychology · Social Psychology