Ryan K Beasley
Biographic Data
| ID | 4085489 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ryan K Beasley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ryan K |
| FAMILY NAME | Beasley |
| SIGNATURE | BEASLEY R K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of St Andrews |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7928-6504 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 217 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
(Re-)Setting the World Stage: Role Theory and Transitional Orders
This article offers a role theoretical perspective on transitional orders, the liminal space between one order and the next. Role theory understands international order as an evolving role system, in which states seek and reject roles for themselves and others. We argue that established international orders can be destabilized by widespread role change dynamics, giving rise to transitional orders that are marked by deep uncertainty about availabl…
Time on their minds: Narrative reasoning and leaders’ construction of temporality in foreign policy
Scholars have identified several temporal challenges in foreign policymaking, such as variable time horizons and maintaining commitment or resolve over time. While the behavioural turn has emphasised leaders and their subjective perceptions, research often relies on rationalist conceptions of objective and linear time and struggles to assess leaders’ subjective perceptions of it. This paper theorises time as an intrinsic aspect of narrative reaso…
Timing bombs and the temporal dynamics of Iranian nuclear security
For more than two decades, Iran’s nuclear programme has concerned policymakers and scholars alike. Whether speeding up uranium enrichment, slowing down international negotiations, or disrupting the timing of key initiatives, actions around Iran’s nuclear programme bear a clear time signature. Yet systematic accounts of the importance of time in shaping foreign and security policymaking have been largely neglected. Through foreign policy timing th…
What if? Counterfactual Trump and the western response to the war in Ukraine
Because of his personality, had Donald Trump won the 2020 election the remarkable and unexpected united response by NATO allies to the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened. Relying on leader personality research in foreign policy, we demonstrate this by using the counterfactual method of analysis. Specifying key differences between Biden's and Trump's personalities in terms of their experiences, traits and beliefs, we…
Foreign Policy in the Fourth Dimension (FP4D): Locating Time in Decision-Making
While international relations scholarship has taken a “temporal turn,” foreign policy decision-making (FPDM) research reveals little explicit theoretical attention to time. Time is an important aspect of several prominent frameworks, yet these either fail to make explicit their conception of time or fail to reflect upon the implications of their temporal assumptions and understandings. We address this lacuna by developing a timing perspective on …
Role Theory, Foreign Policy, and the Social Construction of Sovereignty: Brexit Stage Right
The international roles states play in world politics are bound up with the ways in which sovereignty is constructed within the international system. While scholarship on sovereignty has recognized its social construction, and role research emphasizes social interactions as shaping roles and role behaviors, little work has explored the relationship between sovereignty and roles. Linking roles and sovereignty offers a distinct perspective on the s…
Constructing time in foreign policy-making: Brexit's timing entrepreneurs, malcontemps and apparatchiks
Temporal considerations play a role in many models of foreign policy analysis, particularly those focused on decision-making processes. While time features prominently as a background feature against which sequence, cadence and psychological consequence are measured, little attention has been given to how foreign policy agents actively construct their temporal environments. We propose that different foreign policy-making actors develop distinct r…
British foreign policy after Brexit: Losing Europe and finding a role
British foreign policy stands at a turning point following the 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum. Drawing on role theory, we trace the United Kingdom’s efforts to establish new foreign policy roles as it interacts with the concerned international actors. We find that the pro-Brexit desire to ‘take back control’ has not yet translated into a cogent foreign policy direction. In its efforts to avoid adopting the role of isolate, the United Kingdom has projec…
Covert Operations, Wars, Detainee Destinations, and the Psychology of Democratic Peace
We explore US covert forcible actions against democratic governments and their citizens and show that interdemocratic use of covert force is common and can be accommodated within the theory of democratic peace. Grounded in the Perceptual Theory of Legitimacy, we argue that democracies are constrained by public perceptions of their legitimacy from overtly aggressing against other democratic states. When democracies desire to aggress against their …
Casting for a sovereign role: Socialising an aspirant state in the Scottish independence referendum
This article examines international reactions to Scotland’s 2014 bid for independence as an instance of socialisation of an aspirant state, what we term ‘pre-socialisation’. Building on and contributing to research on state socialisation and role theory, this study proposes a nexus between roles and sovereignty. This nexus has three components: sovereignty itself is a role casted for by an actor; the sovereign role is entangled with the substanti…
Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis
Comparative foreign policy analysis (CFP) is a vibrant and dynamic subfield of international relations. It examines foreign policy decision making processes related to momentous events as well as patterns in day-to-day foreign interactions of nearly 200 different states (along with thousands of international and nongovernmental organizations). Scholars explore the causes of these behaviors as well as their implications by constructing, testing, a…
Quantitative Approaches in Coalition Foreign Policy: Scope, Content, Process
This article surveys the quantitative literature in coalition foreign policy. Tracing its development back to what we call the ‘first generation studies’ in Democratic Peace research, we illustrate that its theoretical and methodological foundations distinguish this literature from its predecessors. We then overview the existing studies along three dimensions: the nature of the dependent variables, the content of the key explanatory variables, an…
Dissonance and decision-making mistakes in the age of risk
Scholars of public and foreign policy have emphasized the role of decision processes in the creation of policy failures and fiascos and have demonstrated the importance that psychological factors play in policy mistakes. Using Ulrich Beck's notion of world risk society and drawing on advances in our understanding of a key psychological factor central to decision-making pathologies – cognitive dissonance – this contribution explores the ways in wh…
Explaining Extremity in the Foreign Policies of Parliamentary Democracies
This investigation was financially supported by the University of Kansas General Research Fund
Taking It to the Extreme: The Effect of Coalition Cabinets on Foreign Policy
Institutional constraints have been offered by some scholars as an explanation for why multiparty coalitions should be more peaceful than single-party cabinets. Yet others see the same institutional setting as a prescription for more aggressive behavior. Recent research has investigated these conflicting expectations, but with mixed results. We examine the theoretical bases for these alternative expectations about the effects of coalition politic…
People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking: Insights from Comparative Case Studies
Journal Article People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking: Insights from Comparative Case Studies Get access Ryan K. Beasley, Ryan K. Beasley Baker University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Juliet Kaarbo, Juliet Kaarbo University of Kansas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Charles F. Hermann, Charles F. Hermann Bush School, Texas A & M University Search for other …
Cognitive Dissonance and Post‐Decision Attitude Change in Six Presidential Elections
Data from the National Election Studies were examined in an effort to isolate cognitive dissonance of two kinds: dissonance arising from a behavioral commitment in the form of voting, and dissonance arising from inconsistencies associated with having supported the losing candidate. Feeling thermometer ratings of the two principal presidential candidates obtained before and immediately after six elections (1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996) w…
A Practical Guide to the Comparative Case Study Method in Political Psychology
The case study, as a method of inquiry, is particularly suited to the field of political psychology. Yet there is little training in political science, and even less in psychology, on how to do case study research. Furthermore, misconceptions about case studies contribute to the methodological barrier that exists within and between the two parent disciplines. This paper reviews the various definitions and uses of case studies and integrates a num…
A Practical Guide to the Comparative Case Study Method in Political Psychology
The case study, as a method of inquiry, is particularly suited to the field of political psychology. Yet there is little training in political science, and even less in psychology, on how to do case study research. Furthermore, misconceptions about case studies contribute to the methodological barrier that exists within and between the two parent disciplines. This paper reviews the various definitions and uses of case studies and integrates a num…
Cognitive Dissonance and Post‐Decision Attitude Change in Six Presidential Elections
Data from the National Election Studies were examined in an effort to isolate cognitive dissonance of two kinds: dissonance arising from a behavioral commitment in the form of voting, and dissonance arising from inconsistencies associated with having supported the losing candidate. Feeling thermometer ratings of the two principal presidential candidates obtained before and immediately after six elections (1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996) w…
Explaining Extremity in the Foreign Policies of Parliamentary Democracies
This investigation was financially supported by the University of Kansas General Research Fund
Taking It to the Extreme: The Effect of Coalition Cabinets on Foreign Policy
Institutional constraints have been offered by some scholars as an explanation for why multiparty coalitions should be more peaceful than single-party cabinets. Yet others see the same institutional setting as a prescription for more aggressive behavior. Recent research has investigated these conflicting expectations, but with mixed results. We examine the theoretical bases for these alternative expectations about the effects of coalition politic…
Role Theory, Foreign Policy, and the Social Construction of Sovereignty: Brexit Stage Right
The international roles states play in world politics are bound up with the ways in which sovereignty is constructed within the international system. While scholarship on sovereignty has recognized its social construction, and role research emphasizes social interactions as shaping roles and role behaviors, little work has explored the relationship between sovereignty and roles. Linking roles and sovereignty offers a distinct perspective on the s…
People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking: Insights from Comparative Case Studies
Journal Article People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking: Insights from Comparative Case Studies Get access Ryan K. Beasley, Ryan K. Beasley Baker University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Juliet Kaarbo, Juliet Kaarbo University of Kansas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Charles F. Hermann, Charles F. Hermann Bush School, Texas A & M University Search for other …
Casting for a sovereign role: Socialising an aspirant state in the Scottish independence referendum
This article examines international reactions to Scotland’s 2014 bid for independence as an instance of socialisation of an aspirant state, what we term ‘pre-socialisation’. Building on and contributing to research on state socialisation and role theory, this study proposes a nexus between roles and sovereignty. This nexus has three components: sovereignty itself is a role casted for by an actor; the sovereign role is entangled with the substanti…
Quantitative Approaches in Coalition Foreign Policy: Scope, Content, Process
This article surveys the quantitative literature in coalition foreign policy. Tracing its development back to what we call the ‘first generation studies’ in Democratic Peace research, we illustrate that its theoretical and methodological foundations distinguish this literature from its predecessors. We then overview the existing studies along three dimensions: the nature of the dependent variables, the content of the key explanatory variables, an…
Dissonance and decision-making mistakes in the age of risk
Scholars of public and foreign policy have emphasized the role of decision processes in the creation of policy failures and fiascos and have demonstrated the importance that psychological factors play in policy mistakes. Using Ulrich Beck's notion of world risk society and drawing on advances in our understanding of a key psychological factor central to decision-making pathologies – cognitive dissonance – this contribution explores the ways in wh…
What if? Counterfactual Trump and the western response to the war in Ukraine
Because of his personality, had Donald Trump won the 2020 election the remarkable and unexpected united response by NATO allies to the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened. Relying on leader personality research in foreign policy, we demonstrate this by using the counterfactual method of analysis. Specifying key differences between Biden's and Trump's personalities in terms of their experiences, traits and beliefs, we…
Constructing time in foreign policy-making: Brexit's timing entrepreneurs, malcontemps and apparatchiks
Temporal considerations play a role in many models of foreign policy analysis, particularly those focused on decision-making processes. While time features prominently as a background feature against which sequence, cadence and psychological consequence are measured, little attention has been given to how foreign policy agents actively construct their temporal environments. We propose that different foreign policy-making actors develop distinct r…
British foreign policy after Brexit: Losing Europe and finding a role
British foreign policy stands at a turning point following the 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum. Drawing on role theory, we trace the United Kingdom’s efforts to establish new foreign policy roles as it interacts with the concerned international actors. We find that the pro-Brexit desire to ‘take back control’ has not yet translated into a cogent foreign policy direction. In its efforts to avoid adopting the role of isolate, the United Kingdom has projec…
Covert Operations, Wars, Detainee Destinations, and the Psychology of Democratic Peace
We explore US covert forcible actions against democratic governments and their citizens and show that interdemocratic use of covert force is common and can be accommodated within the theory of democratic peace. Grounded in the Perceptual Theory of Legitimacy, we argue that democracies are constrained by public perceptions of their legitimacy from overtly aggressing against other democratic states. When democracies desire to aggress against their …
Foreign Policy in the Fourth Dimension (FP4D): Locating Time in Decision-Making
While international relations scholarship has taken a “temporal turn,” foreign policy decision-making (FPDM) research reveals little explicit theoretical attention to time. Time is an important aspect of several prominent frameworks, yet these either fail to make explicit their conception of time or fail to reflect upon the implications of their temporal assumptions and understandings. We address this lacuna by developing a timing perspective on …
(Re-)Setting the World Stage: Role Theory and Transitional Orders
This article offers a role theoretical perspective on transitional orders, the liminal space between one order and the next. Role theory understands international order as an evolving role system, in which states seek and reject roles for themselves and others. We argue that established international orders can be destabilized by widespread role change dynamics, giving rise to transitional orders that are marked by deep uncertainty about availabl…
Timing bombs and the temporal dynamics of Iranian nuclear security
For more than two decades, Iran’s nuclear programme has concerned policymakers and scholars alike. Whether speeding up uranium enrichment, slowing down international negotiations, or disrupting the timing of key initiatives, actions around Iran’s nuclear programme bear a clear time signature. Yet systematic accounts of the importance of time in shaping foreign and security policymaking have been largely neglected. Through foreign policy timing th…
A Practical Guide to the Comparative Case Study Method in Political Psychology
The case study, as a method of inquiry, is particularly suited to the field of political psychology. Yet there is little training in political science, and even less in psychology, on how to do case study research. Furthermore, misconceptions about case studies contribute to the methodological barrier that exists within and between the two parent disciplines. This paper reviews the various definitions and uses of case studies and integrates a num…
People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking: Insights from Comparative Case Studies
Journal Article People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking: Insights from Comparative Case Studies Get access Ryan K. Beasley, Ryan K. Beasley Baker University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Juliet Kaarbo, Juliet Kaarbo University of Kansas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Charles F. Hermann, Charles F. Hermann Bush School, Texas A & M University Search for other …
Cognitive Dissonance and Post‐Decision Attitude Change in Six Presidential Elections
Data from the National Election Studies were examined in an effort to isolate cognitive dissonance of two kinds: dissonance arising from a behavioral commitment in the form of voting, and dissonance arising from inconsistencies associated with having supported the losing candidate. Feeling thermometer ratings of the two principal presidential candidates obtained before and immediately after six elections (1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996) w…
Taking It to the Extreme: The Effect of Coalition Cabinets on Foreign Policy
Institutional constraints have been offered by some scholars as an explanation for why multiparty coalitions should be more peaceful than single-party cabinets. Yet others see the same institutional setting as a prescription for more aggressive behavior. Recent research has investigated these conflicting expectations, but with mixed results. We examine the theoretical bases for these alternative expectations about the effects of coalition politic…
Explaining Extremity in the Foreign Policies of Parliamentary Democracies
This investigation was financially supported by the University of Kansas General Research Fund
Quantitative Approaches in Coalition Foreign Policy: Scope, Content, Process
This article surveys the quantitative literature in coalition foreign policy. Tracing its development back to what we call the ‘first generation studies’ in Democratic Peace research, we illustrate that its theoretical and methodological foundations distinguish this literature from its predecessors. We then overview the existing studies along three dimensions: the nature of the dependent variables, the content of the key explanatory variables, an…
Dissonance and decision-making mistakes in the age of risk
Scholars of public and foreign policy have emphasized the role of decision processes in the creation of policy failures and fiascos and have demonstrated the importance that psychological factors play in policy mistakes. Using Ulrich Beck's notion of world risk society and drawing on advances in our understanding of a key psychological factor central to decision-making pathologies – cognitive dissonance – this contribution explores the ways in wh…
Comparative Foreign Policy Analysis
Comparative foreign policy analysis (CFP) is a vibrant and dynamic subfield of international relations. It examines foreign policy decision making processes related to momentous events as well as patterns in day-to-day foreign interactions of nearly 200 different states (along with thousands of international and nongovernmental organizations). Scholars explore the causes of these behaviors as well as their implications by constructing, testing, a…
Covert Operations, Wars, Detainee Destinations, and the Psychology of Democratic Peace
We explore US covert forcible actions against democratic governments and their citizens and show that interdemocratic use of covert force is common and can be accommodated within the theory of democratic peace. Grounded in the Perceptual Theory of Legitimacy, we argue that democracies are constrained by public perceptions of their legitimacy from overtly aggressing against other democratic states. When democracies desire to aggress against their …
Casting for a sovereign role: Socialising an aspirant state in the Scottish independence referendum
This article examines international reactions to Scotland’s 2014 bid for independence as an instance of socialisation of an aspirant state, what we term ‘pre-socialisation’. Building on and contributing to research on state socialisation and role theory, this study proposes a nexus between roles and sovereignty. This nexus has three components: sovereignty itself is a role casted for by an actor; the sovereign role is entangled with the substanti…
British foreign policy after Brexit: Losing Europe and finding a role
British foreign policy stands at a turning point following the 2016 ‘Brexit’ referendum. Drawing on role theory, we trace the United Kingdom’s efforts to establish new foreign policy roles as it interacts with the concerned international actors. We find that the pro-Brexit desire to ‘take back control’ has not yet translated into a cogent foreign policy direction. In its efforts to avoid adopting the role of isolate, the United Kingdom has projec…
Foreign Policy in the Fourth Dimension (FP4D): Locating Time in Decision-Making
While international relations scholarship has taken a “temporal turn,” foreign policy decision-making (FPDM) research reveals little explicit theoretical attention to time. Time is an important aspect of several prominent frameworks, yet these either fail to make explicit their conception of time or fail to reflect upon the implications of their temporal assumptions and understandings. We address this lacuna by developing a timing perspective on …
Role Theory, Foreign Policy, and the Social Construction of Sovereignty: Brexit Stage Right
The international roles states play in world politics are bound up with the ways in which sovereignty is constructed within the international system. While scholarship on sovereignty has recognized its social construction, and role research emphasizes social interactions as shaping roles and role behaviors, little work has explored the relationship between sovereignty and roles. Linking roles and sovereignty offers a distinct perspective on the s…
Constructing time in foreign policy-making: Brexit's timing entrepreneurs, malcontemps and apparatchiks
Temporal considerations play a role in many models of foreign policy analysis, particularly those focused on decision-making processes. While time features prominently as a background feature against which sequence, cadence and psychological consequence are measured, little attention has been given to how foreign policy agents actively construct their temporal environments. We propose that different foreign policy-making actors develop distinct r…
What if? Counterfactual Trump and the western response to the war in Ukraine
Because of his personality, had Donald Trump won the 2020 election the remarkable and unexpected united response by NATO allies to the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened. Relying on leader personality research in foreign policy, we demonstrate this by using the counterfactual method of analysis. Specifying key differences between Biden's and Trump's personalities in terms of their experiences, traits and beliefs, we…
Timing bombs and the temporal dynamics of Iranian nuclear security
For more than two decades, Iran’s nuclear programme has concerned policymakers and scholars alike. Whether speeding up uranium enrichment, slowing down international negotiations, or disrupting the timing of key initiatives, actions around Iran’s nuclear programme bear a clear time signature. Yet systematic accounts of the importance of time in shaping foreign and security policymaking have been largely neglected. Through foreign policy timing th…
Time on their minds: Narrative reasoning and leaders’ construction of temporality in foreign policy
Scholars have identified several temporal challenges in foreign policymaking, such as variable time horizons and maintaining commitment or resolve over time. While the behavioural turn has emphasised leaders and their subjective perceptions, research often relies on rationalist conceptions of objective and linear time and struggles to assess leaders’ subjective perceptions of it. This paper theorises time as an intrinsic aspect of narrative reaso…
(Re-)Setting the World Stage: Role Theory and Transitional Orders
This article offers a role theoretical perspective on transitional orders, the liminal space between one order and the next. Role theory understands international order as an evolving role system, in which states seek and reject roles for themselves and others. We argue that established international orders can be destabilized by widespread role change dynamics, giving rise to transitional orders that are marked by deep uncertainty about availabl…
Political science (15 works) · Politics (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (12 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Foreign policy (8 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Psychology (7 works)