Graham T. Allison’s Essence of Decision is now in at least its third generation: from a RAND Corporation monograph to a journal article to this book. In any version it is a splendid piece of work, useful to students as well as to professional readers.
Allison contrasts three “conceptual lenses” or models of explanation for foreign policy decisions: the rational actor model, organizational process model, and bureaucratic politics model. The rational actor model explains national choices as purposive goal-directed behaviors. The organizational process model explains foreign policy outputs as the products of bureaucratic routines, programs, and standard operating procedures. The bureaucratic politics model explains foreign policy outcomes as the resultants of bargaining games among players in positions. These models are assessed for their comparative utility in understanding the events of the Cuban missile crisis of October, 1962.
