Title: Not quite inexplicable: exploring the Bush administration's response to terrorism

Authors: Stephen Wrage

Addresses: US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, USA

Abstract: This article briefly explores the many ways in which the George W. Bush administration|s response to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 do not conform to the predictions of the rational actor model. The article suggests that foreign policy decision-making models which focus on the behaviour of organisations and on bureaucratic politics provide far more satisfactory explanations for such matters as the failure to anticipate the attacks, the decision to attack Iraq, the exclusion of certain major actors from the policy making process and the failure to anticipate the difficulties which would follow on the invasion of Iraq.

Keywords: rational actor model; organisational behaviour model; bureaucratic politics models; counterterrorism; multilateralism; pre-emption; neoconservatives; policy malpractice; terrorism; Bush administration; George W. Bush; USA; United States; terrorist attacks; 9/11; foreign policy; decision making; Iraq.

DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2008.019018

Global Business and Economics Review, 2008 Vol.10 No.2, pp.197 - 206

Published online: 27 Jun 2008 *

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