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Groupthink and the Hostage Rescue Mission

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Steve Smith
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Extract

Irving Janis's work on groupthink has attracted considerable attention from those who seek to explain foreign-policy decision making. The basic argument – that excessive esprit de corps and amiability restrict the critical faculties of small decision-making groups, thereby leading to foreign-policy fiascos – is both an appealing and a stimulating one. In addition, it is also an argument that is capable of being tested against empirical evidence. Thus, Frank Heller has suggested that groupthink may be very useful in explaining British policy during the Falklands Crisis. The purpose of this note is to indicate the utility of the notion of groupthink in explaining one recent foreign-policy fiasco, the attempt by the United States to rescue its hostages in Tehran.

Type
Notes and Comments
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 117 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 For a critique of Janis's work on groupthink see Longley, J. and Pruitt, D., ‘Groupthink: a Critique of Janis's Theory’, Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 1 (1980), 74–93.Google Scholar

2 Heller, F., ‘The dangers of groupthink’, The Guardian, 31 01 1983.Google Scholar

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6 The problems in the implementation of the rescue mission plan are discussed in detail in Smith, S., ‘The Hostage Rescue Mission’, in Smith, S. and Clarke, M., eds, Foreign Policy Implementation (London: Allen & Unwin, forthcoming 1985).Google Scholar

7 Newsweek, 12 07 1982, p. 17.Google Scholar

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