In this paper, an analytical framework is developed in order to investigate the role of information in crisis decision-making. Three theoretical nodes (information management functions) emerge from a discussion drawing upon earlier contributions by scholars such as Snyder and Diesing (1977) and George (1980), and more recent works by Vertzberger (1990) and Jönsson (1990). Search is an actor-oriented node focusing on the collection of data about the operational environment. Processing is conceptualized as a form of political argumentation in which raw data are transformed into higher order working propositions about an actor or a situation. Communication is a dyadic node in which the distribution of information within and the conveyance of meaning between state actors are problematized. These analytical tools are tested in an empirical application: Swedish decision-making during the `Whiskey on the Rocks' crisis' (1981).
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