1.0 Introduction
Human emotion contributes to decision-making process, however, it has always been viewed as an impediment in the quest of sensible decisions. Consequently, any exhaustive account of foreign policy-decision making should consider the impact of emotion such as anger, humiliation, revenge or fear when arriving at some decisions. Leaders – who run states – all over make decisions based on their own personalities, cultural values, experience, and basic emotion at a particular time. Schafer and Crichlow (2010) note that the decision-process within the state is fundamentally an individual process filled with those things that are human such as errors, biases, personalities and interpretations (p. 9). But the emotion experienced during the …show more content…
12). Therefore, policy making seeks to fulfill national interest in conjunction with other nations. Sometimes, the interest sought is global security or domination. A good example is during the post World War II when the western and eastern blocks sought to grow capitalism and communism respectively engaging in war sometimes to make this happen as some argued the threat that either economic system posed to development. The US engaged in the Vietnam War which was a clash between communist (the USSR and China) and anti-communist (the US and Philippines) for Vietnam (BBC, 2016). Although this was a foreign policy decision anchored on individual states, the decisions were made by individuals whose emotions resonated with their fears and what they deemed as a threat to their own political existence. In essence, all the participants of the Vietnam War also called the American War, were seeking to fulfill their national interests. Here, the role of individual loyalty to a country and the pledge to defend it, stirs the emotions that help arrive at some of the
Human emotion contributes to decision-making process, however, it has always been viewed as an impediment in the quest of sensible decisions. Consequently, any exhaustive account of foreign policy-decision making should consider the impact of emotion such as anger, humiliation, revenge or fear when arriving at some decisions. Leaders – who run states – all over make decisions based on their own personalities, cultural values, experience, and basic emotion at a particular time. Schafer and Crichlow (2010) note that the decision-process within the state is fundamentally an individual process filled with those things that are human such as errors, biases, personalities and interpretations (p. 9). But the emotion experienced during the …show more content…
12). Therefore, policy making seeks to fulfill national interest in conjunction with other nations. Sometimes, the interest sought is global security or domination. A good example is during the post World War II when the western and eastern blocks sought to grow capitalism and communism respectively engaging in war sometimes to make this happen as some argued the threat that either economic system posed to development. The US engaged in the Vietnam War which was a clash between communist (the USSR and China) and anti-communist (the US and Philippines) for Vietnam (BBC, 2016). Although this was a foreign policy decision anchored on individual states, the decisions were made by individuals whose emotions resonated with their fears and what they deemed as a threat to their own political existence. In essence, all the participants of the Vietnam War also called the American War, were seeking to fulfill their national interests. Here, the role of individual loyalty to a country and the pledge to defend it, stirs the emotions that help arrive at some of the