Essence Of Decision: Explaining The Cuban Missile Crisis
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In October 1962, the world stood on the precipice of nuclear annihilation as the United States and the Soviet Union locked horns over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba — and Graham T. Allison's Essence of Decision offers the definitive analytical account of those thirteen terrifying days. Rather than accepting a simple narrative of rational actors making calculated choices, Allison dismantles the event through three distinct conceptual lenses — the Rational Actor Model, the Organizational Behavior Model, and the Governmental Politics Model — revealing how bureaucratic inertia, institutional constraints, and political bargaining shaped decisions that nearly ended civilization. A landmark work in political science and foreign policy analysis, this study transformed how scholars, strategists, and policymakers understand governmental decision-making under crisis conditions. Allison's rigorous, multi-model methodology argues convincingly that no single framework can capture the complexity of state behavior, a thesis that continues to resonate in an era of renewed geopolitical tension. Whether you are a student of history, a policy professional, or simply a curious mind, Essence of Decision raises a question that lingers long after the final page: how close does the world perpetually teeter to catastrophe, and who — or what — truly holds the wheel?
Author: Graham T. Allison
Format: Paperback
Published: 1971, Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Politics & law
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In October 1962, the world stood on the precipice of nuclear annihilation as the United States and the Soviet Union locked horns over the placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba — and Graham T. Allison's Essence of Decision offers the definitive analytical account of those thirteen terrifying days. Rather than accepting a simple narrative of rational actors making calculated choices, Allison dismantles the event through three distinct conceptual lenses — the Rational Actor Model, the Organizational Behavior Model, and the Governmental Politics Model — revealing how bureaucratic inertia, institutional constraints, and political bargaining shaped decisions that nearly ended civilization. A landmark work in political science and foreign policy analysis, this study transformed how scholars, strategists, and policymakers understand governmental decision-making under crisis conditions. Allison's rigorous, multi-model methodology argues convincingly that no single framework can capture the complexity of state behavior, a thesis that continues to resonate in an era of renewed geopolitical tension. Whether you are a student of history, a policy professional, or simply a curious mind, Essence of Decision raises a question that lingers long after the final page: how close does the world perpetually teeter to catastrophe, and who — or what — truly holds the wheel?