Explain the degree to which the personality and mental state of Essay

Explain the degree to which the personality and mental state of decision makers impose themselves onto the foreign policy of sta - Essay Example His advisors, including Dick Cheney, who was the Secretary of Defense, were concerned about the issue regarding the end of the Cold War, and they were well aware that the American people were questioning the necessity of a large military budget at that time, seeing as the Soviet Union was on the verge of complete collapse. On the other side was Saddam Hussein he felt that Kuwait was guilty of a multitude of transgressions, which included the fact that Kuwait had depressed oil prices by selling cheaply; that Kuwait was demanding that Iraq pay a debt, even though Hussein felt that the debt should?e been forgiven, because Hussein had defended Kuwait against aggression earlier; and that Kuwait was selling oil that Hussein thought was on the Iraq side of the border. When Hussein made noises towards Kuwait to try to engage them in negotiations over these issues, Kuwait ignored him, which made Hussein all the more angry. Combined with the fact that Hussein was feeling more and more powerles s for a variety of reason, not the least of which was the fact that he couldn? rely on the Soviet Union to help him out anymore, and the situation became a virtual powder keg. Hussein invaded Kuwait, and the United States intervened and made war on Hussein, and this is what caused the Persian Gulf War. This essay will examine the decision-making process of the key players in this conflict. Definition of Foreign Policy The grounds for examining the Persian Gulf War is in accordance with the theories set forth by Hudson (2006).1 She explains that international relations has a ground for its field of study, and that is that what occurs between nations and across nations is grounded in the decision-makers acting singly or in groups.2 That means that the individuals who are a part of the major decisions have a certain way that they perceive and look at the world, and this world view is what impacts their decisions. They are shaped by the world around them, and this is the basis of concer n for Hudson's analysis. She states that the analysis may be multifactorial, which is taking into account different levels of decision-making, and there also may be an agent-oriented theory that grounds the decision-making process. This is assuming that human beings are the true agent, and that international politics and change comes from the world view of these agents.3 This is the theory upon which this paper is based. Bush and his Advisors Reasons for Going to War   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Liberman (2007)4 proposes that punitiveness was one motivation behind the decision-makers decision to go to war in the Persian Gulf. In his article, he examines the nature of moral punitiveness, then suggests that President George H.W. Bush might have been motivated by this when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Moral punitiveness has a basis in social psychology, explains Liberman (2007).5 Retribution is another word that Liberman (2007) uses interchangeably with moral punitive ness, and states that retribution is the basis for many moral decisions in public life.6   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Liberman (2007)7 states that one of the decisions that is shaped by moral punitiveness is the death penalty, and whether one believes that it should be legal or not. He states that a large percentage of people who believe in the death penalty believe in it because it is