Loyalty and Expertise in Foreign Policy Advising

• In Event: Uncertainty, Commitment and the Logic of Conflict

Brief Overview

We present a formal model in which the president chooses foreign policy advisers to make a policy recommendation. We then estimate the model using data on US foreign policy deliberations to quantify the effect of strategic distortions.

Authors

• Matt Malis, Texas A&M University

• Joseph J. Ruggiero, University of Virginia