Jerel Rosati's Website

My record of research and scholarship has been extremely active, steady, and cumulative. My major field is the study of foreign policy, which is a subfield of the larger study of international relations (IR). My area of specialization is the theory and practice of foreign policy, focusing on political psychological approaches and the policymaking process within the United States. This is of necessity a broad undertaking for it entails examining the political and policymaking process of a large and complicated country which is heavily involved throughout the world. Consequently, my research has steadily evolved over time--building and expanding on earlier work--and consists of a number of interrelated (and overlapping) research projects as described below.

Governmental Politics and Decision-Making Project. Key publications:
* "Developing a Systematic Decision-Making Framework: Bureaucratic Politics in Perspective," World Politics 33 (January 1981)
* "Congressional Influence in American Foreign Policy: Addressing the Controversy," Journal of Political and Military Sociology (1984)
* "A Neglected Actor in American Foreign Policy: The Role of the Judiciary," International Studies Notes (1985)

My earliest interest and research focused on governmental politics and decision-making, based on the theoretical assumption that governmental structure and process explained much of a state's foreign policy. My article in World Politics critiqued the then-popular bureaucratic politics model of executive branch decision-making through a comparative case study of Presidents Johnson and Nixon, and presented a more comprehensive decision-making theoretical framework for future analysis. My article in the Journal of Political and Military Sociology examined the controversy over to what extent did Congress reassert its foreign policy influence in the post-Vietnam and post-Watergate environment. My article in International Studies Notes questioned the assumption of judicial restraint in foreign policy, suggesting that the judiciary has and will continue to take a more active stance, especially involving non-security issues, in the post-Vietnam era.

Policymaker Images and Cognition Project. Key publications:
The Carter Administration's Quest for Global Community: Beliefs and Their Impact on Behavior (1987)
"Continuity and Change in the Foreign Policy Beliefs of Political Leaders: Addressing the Controversy Over the Carter Administration," Political Psychology (1988)
"Jimmy Carter, A Man Before His Time? The Emergence and Collapse of the First Post-Cold War Presidency," Presidential Studies Quarterly (1993)
"A Cognitive Approach to the Study of Foreign Policy," in Foreign Policy Analysis: Continuity and Change in its Second Generation, (1995)
"The Power of Human Images and Cognition in Foreign Policy (and World Politics)," Mershon International Studies Review (1999)

My examination of the role of governmental politics and decision-making convinced me that it was important to go beyond structure and process to explain foreign policy--that a psychological approach was an important source for explaining the motivations and behavior of policymakers. This resulted in my first book, The Carter Administration's Quest for Global Community. It integrated the pyschological and cognitive literature in order to examine the individual and collective beliefs of multiple policymakers, the level of stability and change in both individual and collective beliefs, and the relationship between beliefs and behavior--making an important scholarly contribution. As stated by reviewers of the book, "A scholarly, well-written, and original work" (Choice); "Rosati's monograph is important from two overall perspectives. The first is as secondary/archival research that applies current social and cognitive psychological theory to the analysis of perceptions (and changing perceptions)....The second is as a detailed examination of the relation among [beliefs] held by three key decision-makers, external events, and shifts in policy behavior with the Carter Administration" (Contemporary Psychology); "The strength of Rosati's book is that he tackles a difficult subject--the relationship between beliefs and behavior--mindful of the limitations of his data and the problem of determining causality" (Journal of Politics); "The study convincingly shows that at least in 1977 and 1978 the Carter Administration held a worldview distinguished from those of its predecessors by its relatively optimistic assessment of the Soviet Union and a genuine lack of interest in containment" (American Political Science Review).
In my Presidential Studies Quarterly article I highlight how the Carter Administration's initial foreign policy differed from previous administrations and represented the United State's first post-cold war foreign policy orientation.

Since my political psychological work on the Carter Administration, there have been major developments and scholarly advances in understanding the process of cognition in psychology and politics which continue to fascinate me. I was invited to assess the developments and the state of the field in a chapter on a "Cognitive Approach to the Study of Foreign Policy" for a book assessing the progress that has been made in the study of foreign policy over the past two generations. This initial review and assessment led to a much more comprehensive and significant assessment that is being published as a major review article in the International Studies Review--a publication of the International Studies Association. It attempts to provide a major contribution by reviewing the most significant cognitive regularities and tendencies of decision-makers in the context of the making of foreign policy (and suggesting areas in need of further research) and, also, argues that the theoretical study of world politics would be more powerful if it was grounded in, and based on, the assumptions of a cognitive paradigm (as opposed to a rational actor paradigm).

Human Needs Project. Key publications:
The Power of Human Needs in World Society (1988), authored or co-authored three chapters
"A Critical Assessment of the Power of Human Needs in World Society," in Conflict: Readings in Management and Resolution (1991)

The genesis of this research was not my previous work, but a unique experience due to my interaction with John Burton, a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of South Carolina whose life-long commitment has been conflict resolution. Together, a study group evolved, with Roger Coate (University of South Carolina), Chadwick Alger (Ohio State University), and Craig Murphy (Wellesley College), which provided the foundation for a book. The Power of Human Needs in World Society is based on a needs theoretical perspective--that the underlying source of human interaction throughout world politics, including international conflict and its resolution, is that individuals have needs which they ultimately strive to satisfy. Despite its effort to wrestle with broad abstract theorizing in international relations and go beyond mainstream perspectives, especially realism, the book has for the most part been favorably reviewed. "Combining original and existing works by noted scholars, the book represents a significant contribution to international relations theory, one substantially unlike any other single work" (Perspectives); "Pardon my going on like this, but waiting ca. 0.25 centuries for forthright consideration of needs and then finding such a splendid collection of essays has made me unseemly delighted. Even more important, I think the influence of your volume will be strong and enduring" (letter from James Chowning Davies).

Foreign Policy Change and Restructuring Project. Key publications:
Foreign Policy Restructuring: How Governments Respond to Global Change (1994), authored or co-authored three chapters

As a result of my previous work on foreign policy and in light of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the cold war, a study group and project was formed to explore when and why governments act to redefine their foreign policy--an important topic that was neglected in the systematic study of foreign policy. This resulted in a volume, of which I was the principal editor, entitled Foreign Policy Restructuring. It has been strongly received: "A significant contribution to a growing field of research and policy interest" (one of the "blind" reviewers of the book manuscript); "The book focuses on what is meant by restructuring, how can it be explained, and what its implications are for the study of international relations. Such theoretical concerns are of paramount importance, and the editors and contributors have gone a long way toward setting out a research agenda that will provide important knowledge about foreign policy. In doing so, they have advanced the field of foreign policy analysis, which has been somewhat moribund of late" (American Political Science Review).

Opinion-Making Process and Elite Beliefs Project. Key publications:
"A New Perspective on the Foreign Policy Views of American Opinion Leaders in the Cold War and Post-Cold War Eras," Political Research Quarterly (1998)
"Extending the Three-Headed and Four-Headed Eagles: The Foreign Policy Orientations of American Elites During the Eighties and Nineties," Political Psychology (1997)

My earlier work in political psychology and U.S. foreign policy has made me interested in examining the opinion-making process and elite beliefs. The Political Research Quarterly article demonstrates that the foreign policy structure and views of American opinion leaders are more diverse then commonly thought, and indicates both change and persistence in this thought since the end of the Cold War. The Political Psychology article demonstrates that there are more then three or four foreign policy schools of thought among American leaders, describing the basic foreign policy orientations that prevailed during the 1980s and 1990s. The articles in this project break new methodological ground by relying on a systematic content analysis of writings published in leading foreign policy journals, thus highlighting the importance of developing alternative research strategies and data sources which both supplement and complement more traditional survey research approaches in order to more fully capture the foreign policy thought of American opinion leaders.

Synthesis of U.S. Foreign Policymaking Process Project. Key publications:
"The Domestic Political Environment," in Intervention into the 1990s: United States Foreign Policy in the Third World (1992)
The Politics of United States Foreign Policy (1999)

All of my work on foreign policy has instigated my interest in providing a synthesis of the making of U.S. foreign policy. As Bernard Cohen, one of the classic students of the field, noted as early as 1956 in The Political Process and Foreign Policy, "while there may be widespread recognition of the desirability of knowing more about how foreign policy is made, it is a far from simple task to build of a useful body of relevant knowledge about overall process." This was echoed relative to international relations in general forty years later by Margaret Hermann in her statement of editorial philosophy for the newly created International Studies Review, "The isolation of the different specialties in international studies limits the cross-fertilization that could lead to more integrative and synthetic perspectives." It is this perspective that led to this project, resulting in a chapter and a textbook to provide a scholarly synthesis and understanding of the overall policymaking process within the United States. The Politics of United States Foreign Policy (having gone through 12 reviewers by the press) explains from three theoretical perspectives how government, society, and the global environment affect the policymaking process. The book has been used in over 200 colleges and universities throughout the country, over 10 countries throughout the world, has been translated into Chinese (by World Affairs Press, Beijing), and is now in its second edition. A review in the London School of Economics' journal Millennium: The Journal of International Studies states Rosati "demonstrates how patterns of continuity and change occur in the foreign policy process, and the extent to which the President can actually govern in the foreign policy area. It also examines the long-standing, inherent tensions between national security priorities, as defined by each administration, and the ideals of a democratic society. Additionally, Rosati masterfully uses historical examples to explain conceptual and analytical approaches to the foreign policy-making process.

U.S. Global Leadership in the Post-Cold War Era Project. Key publications: "The Presidency and U.S. Foreign Policy," After the End: Making U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Environment (1998)
"U.S. Leadership into the Next Millennium: A Question of Politics," International Journal (1997)

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war has raised intriguing questions about the future of U.S. leadership in the post-cold war world. Although most attention has gone to the impact of global changes and structures, my article in International Journal focuses on the importance of internal political dynamics and changes since the Vietnam War in affecting presidential governance, hence affecting the future of U.S. global leadership into the next millennium. The chapter in After the End builds off the article, providing greater depth and exploring the importance of the president's ability to manage the bureaucracy, organize the policymaking process, and overcome bureaucratic constraints (and their cold war legacy). Ultimately, U.S. global leadership into the next millennium is as much, if not more, a function of domestic politics and the policymaking process as it is of global, systemic forces.

I have an active future research agenda that flows from my previous work. This includes:
* examining agenda-setting, World Affairs Organizations, and the communications process as part of my continuing interest in the opinion-making process and elite beliefs (which has been submitted for journal review).
* examining the emerging role of the White House Chief of Staff as part of my continuing interest in governmental politics and the decision-making process (in which the first part of this project is about to be submitted for journal review).
* examining the role of the newly created National Economic Council (NEC) and its implications for presidential foreign policy governance as part of my continuing interest in governmental politics and decision-making.
* building upon my work on foreign policy restructuring to further develop a general dialectical model, as opposed to one that is more U.S.-centric, of foreign policy change.
* developing a book project on U.S. Global Leadership into the New Millennium: The Politics of Muddling Through for a major scholarly press.
* developing an article on the importance of teaching and teaching "pedagogy" as part of graduate study.
* an invitation to present a paper for a symposium entitled "Metaphorical Power: Rhetoric and World Politics" for the Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology to be held in Amsterdam in July, 1999, which is consistent with my interest in images and cognition.
* an invitation to contribute to a new encyclopedia project entitled History in Dispute Encyclopedia in the area of U.S. foreign policy.

A word about peer review to chapter publications. Many of my chapters were externally reviewed (in many cases blindly) after they were submitted, as indicated in this file. In each case, there were a minimum of two reviewers; sometimes there were more. For example, in my chapter which is appearing with Duke University Press, according to the editor, "the entire volume benefited from the peer reviews by the volume editor, the anonymous panel of reviewers I enlisted to review each chapter, and the three reviewers used by Duke University Press. Although a bit time consuming, these three layers of peer review have strengthened the volume."

A word about authorship. Most of my work is single-authored. However, I also have co-authored and co-edited with others. In all but three cases, I have been the principal author and the conceptualizer of the project (the three exceptions are the International Journal article of 1987 in which I was the junior co-author; the Northeast African Studies article of 1987 in which the authorship was joint; and The Power of Human Needs in World Society book which was a joint production by Roger Coate and I).

Finally, a word about mentoring. I would like to say that over the years I have made an effort to bring Ph.D. students, and former students, on to various research projects of mine as a means to help professionalize them and contribute to their careers, as well as to professionally benefit from the collaborative process. Along with all my supervision and involvement in the development of graduate students in general and Ph.D. students in particular (discussed under teaching), I consider bringing students with academic aspirations onto research projects and publishing together to be a very important scholarly mentoring role. Not only am I extremely pleased with their placement and professional success, I am very pleased to have contributed to their own scholarly record and scholarship. In addition to numerous articles and chapters being published, four of the dissertations which I have chaired have been revised and published as scholarly books:

* C. Roe Goddard, U.S. Foreign Economic Policy and the Latin American Debt Issue (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993)
* Peter J. Schraeder, United States Foreign Policy Toward Africa: Incrementalism, Crisis and Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
* Steven Twing, American Culture and the Cold War: The Cultural Shaping of Three Cold Warriors (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998)
* Jean Garrison, The Politics of the Inner Circle: Foreign Policy Advisers in the Influence Process (College Town, TX: Texas A & M Press, 1999) [Betty Glad and I were the key dissertation advisers in this case.]

Overall, I think that it is fair to say that I have endeavored to make a significant scholarly contribution and establish a growing reputation across the disciplines of political science, international relations, and political psychology. My research program has steadily evolved and cumulated over a number of projects revolving around gaps in the study of foreign policy. My plan for the foreseeable future is to continue to extend my previous scholarship to arrive at a stronger understanding of the theory and practice of foreign policy in general and the U.S. foreign policymaking process in particular. In other words, my goal is to continue to learn and grow intellectually so as to better understand the ever-fascinating dynamics of human behavior and interaction that transpires throughout the world.

In sum, I believe that in the area of research and scholarship I have made "significant contributions" to the study of foreign policy and accomplished an "excellent level of performance," demonstrating a "sustained program of research oriented to or guided by a significant set of theoretical and substantive questions," appearing in "high quality externally-reviewed publications," and having achieved "a national and/or international reputation." I believe that this will be confirmed by my seven outside referees, all of which are among the most distinguished and outstanding scholars that exist in their respective fields recognized within the profession of international relations throughout the United States and the world.

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