In the case study, Assassinating bin Laben: Right or Wrong? the author Priya Dixit outlines and examines the event of Osama bin Laben being assassinated by U.S. Special forces in Pakistan. Dixit proceeds to further debate not only the ethics and legality behind this killing, but also behind the target killings the U.S. has been committing with greater occurrence on ‘terrorist’. In order to understand these actions I believe we must first identify what decision making process is occurring in the White House during the authorization of target killings. Then from this identification a more detailed idea can materialize as to why target killings are being used. In this article, I believe that the rational actor model is being used and from this
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officials. However, she never identifies what method the U.S. decisionmakers used in this process and the overall target-killing program, but I believe the method to be rational actor. The reasoning behind my support of the rational actor model is the process of the rational actor model, as shown before, is perfectly linked to how the decision to assassinate bin laden came to fruition. The first step of the process is to identify the problem. For this step we can see Obama several times identifying Osama bin Laden as an immediate threat or problem. He states, “Here’s the deal. I want this hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to come to the front of the line… This has to be out top priority and it needs leadership in the tops of your organization.” Here we clearly see step 1 of the process completed with the threat being identified. The next step goals are listed and ranked can be seen during Obama’s presidential campaign. In which he stated that if bin Laden was in his sight he would not hesitate in taking him out even if the Pakistani government is unwilling or unable to do so. This shows that Obama has placed the interest of killing bin Laden over that of foreign relations with Pakistan, which would indicate the death or apprehension of bin Laden is ranked higher than the sovereignty of Pakistan to President
officials. However, she never identifies what method the U.S. decisionmakers used in this process and the overall target-killing program, but I believe the method to be rational actor. The reasoning behind my support of the rational actor model is the process of the rational actor model, as shown before, is perfectly linked to how the decision to assassinate bin laden came to fruition. The first step of the process is to identify the problem. For this step we can see Obama several times identifying Osama bin Laden as an immediate threat or problem. He states, “Here’s the deal. I want this hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri to come to the front of the line… This has to be out top priority and it needs leadership in the tops of your organization.” Here we clearly see step 1 of the process completed with the threat being identified. The next step goals are listed and ranked can be seen during Obama’s presidential campaign. In which he stated that if bin Laden was in his sight he would not hesitate in taking him out even if the Pakistani government is unwilling or unable to do so. This shows that Obama has placed the interest of killing bin Laden over that of foreign relations with Pakistan, which would indicate the death or apprehension of bin Laden is ranked higher than the sovereignty of Pakistan to President