Growing understanding of the connections between the mind and the body, and of the ways in which interoception influences decision making, may well revolutionize our understanding of how decisions are reached in foreign policy analysis, drawing attention to a phenomenon which has been termed ‘visceral politics’. Applying the somatic marker theory to an understanding of political decision making, this talk briefly analyses President William McKinley’s decision making prior to the Spanish-American War, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance’s decisions about the Iran hostage rescue mission, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s Kosovo decision making, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s decisions about the Bin Laden raid, and National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s decision making about Syria. 

David Houghton is a British-American academic and a Professor of the College of Distance Education. His books include 'Losing An Empire, Finding A Role' (second edition with David Sanders, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 'The Decision Point' (Oxford University Press, 2012) and 'A Citizen's Guide to American Foreign Policy' (Routledge, 2013). He has published academic articles in journals such as the British Journal of Political Science, Political Psychology, Security Studies, Terrorism and Political Violence, Foreign Policy Analysis and Journal of Cold War Studies. He previously taught at the Universities of Pittsburgh, Central Florida, Essex and King's College London.

This seminar series is organised within the program on American politics and international security by Institut d’Estudis Nord-americans (IEN) and IBEI.

🔎 Check the first semester's agenda here.