[...]... we conduct a detailed investigation of the decisions formulated by both administrations Our analysis of the first Bush administration does not generate a simple conclusion We contend that from early on President Bush and his national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, defined the nature 6 / the bush administrations and saddam hussein of the problem, the goals the United States would pursue, and the. .. build a theoretical construct that captures the nature of the decision-making processes of the two Bush administrations To achieve this objective we explicate and compare the way the two Bush administrations addressed the Gulf and Iraqi crises As part of the analysis, we assess whether each administration deviated from the rational process during the crises, and if they did, we single out the factors... the information each administration examined prior to the surprise attacks, as well as some of the conclusions different members derived In the case of the first Bush administration we focus also on the negotiations and discussions some of its leading members carried on with Saddam Hussein and several other Middle Eastern leaders during the period prior to the invasion In chapter three we analyze the. .. as their mantra, and the traditional microeconomic model of rational choice as their foundation, analysts sought to explicate a wide range of foreign policies designed and implemented by a variety of U.S administrations 10 / the bush administrations and saddam hussein Two scholars have proposed that the strategies leaders choose are a function of the values they attach to alternative outcomes and the. .. carefully whether or not to try to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq? What convinced the president not to try to overturn the Iraqi regime? 5 Did George W Bush and his senior foreign policy advisers study meticulously the problems caused by the Saddam Hussein regime? What choices did they consider before deciding on the use of military force against the Saddam Hussein regime? What propelled the president... reconsider his original decision Both administrations used historical analogies as part of their decision-making process The Munich fiasco and the 1989–1990 Panama crisis informed the decisions by the first President Bush The human costs absorbed by the U.S military in Vietnam and Lebanon dictated the strategy opted by his military advisers at the Pentagon Two historical cases influenced the second... members of George H W Bush s administration, who refused to validate the conclusions until just a few hours before the start of the invasion For the next few days, Bush and his senior advisers met to discuss Iraq’s action and the manner in which the United States should respond Prior to the second meeting, however, the president and his national security adviser had agreed that the United States could... perform these tasks, they must have access to reliable, though not necessarily complete, information, and identify the interests at stake and their linkages Then they must isolate a set of pertinent goals, rank them, and ascertain the extent to which they either correspond or conflict with one another The next three endeavors involve setting apart a number of viable alternatives, weighing them against one... story that lies embedded in the memory of the decision-maker Informationprocessing theorists stress that decision-makers rely on scripts and try 14 / the bush administrations and saddam hussein to identify analogies that help them deal with new situations Particularly relevant to the study of international relations is the use of historical case studies perceived to be similar to the current challenge Scripts... dimension compensates the negative one in each alternative, typically reject any alternative that has a negative dimension Analytical Framework Based on the aforementioned discussion of decision-making theories, there are a number of approaches one can use to analyze the way the two Bush administrations formulated their respective policies toward Iraq, and the extent to which each deviated from the rational . Matthew Kaufman The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein Deciding on Conflict Alex Roberto Hybel and Justin Matthew Kaufman THE BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS AND SADDAM HUSSEIN © Alex Roberto Hybel,. Levels and Methods of Analysis in International Politics Edited by Harvey Starr The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein: Deciding on Conflict Alex Roberto Hybel and Justin Matthew Kaufman The Bush. 1–4039–7578–7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hybel, Alex Roberto The Bush administrations and Saddam Hussein : deciding on conflict / by Alex Roberto Hybel and Matthew. p. cm. Includes