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THE CNN EFFECT IN ACTION
implementation and access to near-perfect information. In practice,
of course, governments are rarely unitary in foreign policy–making
and are often hampered by a number of factors including access to
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Since the 1970s, for-
accurate information and time constraints.
eign policy analysis has largely moved beyond rational actor
approaches and assumed the process to be more intricate and fluid.
The incorporation of at least three variables has added to the com-
plexity in foreign policy formulation theorizing: the nature of the
state, the leadership’s character/personality and bureaucratic
contestation.
The nature of the state is believed to be paramount to the nature of
decision-making. Democratic states, for example, are widely believed
to be more restricted than autocratic states, especially on using force
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as an instrument of foreign policy.
The characteristic of the leader-
ship and the personality of the leader are also considered important
factors, as studies on the U.S. president have demonstrated very dif-
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ferent approaches to foreign policy formulation and management.
The third level of complexity, incorporated in the bureaucratic model
of policy formulation, relates to the internal processes within govern-
ment departments and competing desires to influence official policy.
In most states, there are official individuals and institutions that hold
responsibility over foreign policy. In practice, however, these institu-
tions and individuals do not formulate policy alone. In a famous
review of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Graham Allison found that orga-
nizational routines (standard operating procedures) and departmental
interests were far more critical in policy formulation than any ration-
ally based decisions from a unified perception of the national interest. 58
This model, according to Chris Hill, argues that “ministries and other
bureaucratic units pursue at best their own versions of the national
interest and at worst their own parochial concerns, so that foreign
policy–making becomes an inward-looking battleground in which deci-
sions are produced by horse-trading more than logic.” 59 Four of the
main sources of competition to foreign ministries (State Department
in the United States) include defense ministries (Department of
Defense in the United States), economic ministries (Departments
for trade, foreign aid, central banks, etc.), intelligence services
(Central Intelligence Agency in the United States), and others who
attempt to coordinate complexity, such as the prime minister in the
United Kingdom or the president in the United States. 60 In recent
years, the U.S. president’s National Security Council (NSC) has been
a forum that has attempted to coordinate departmental interests in
the United States. Although the bureaucratic model has been subject