The Nixon Administration and Middle East Crises: Theory and Evidence of Presidential Management of Foreign Policy Decision Making

Abstract

This article examines how the Nixon administration attempted to structure and manage advisory groups during two foreign-policy crises that erupted in the Middle East. It focuses on the crises management structures and decision-making processes found during the 1970 Jordanian civil war and the 1973 October War, and discusses the process of decision making during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war. The broader goal is to explore the links that exist between structure and process in foreign policy-crisis decision mak ing. The research reported here provides evidence of the Nixon crisis ad visory structures and the processes they produced which suggest some lessons about crisis management that can be explored in future research that will need to draw on more cases and presidents.