Advisers in Foreign Policy

Summary:
Do advisers matter in foreign policy, and if so, how? Recent scholarship on foreign policy decision-making prioritizes leaders and the institutions that surround them, rather than the characteristics of advisers themselves. In this seminar, Professor Kertzer will present his research, using big data to study the psychological microfoundations of bureaucratic politics, drawing on original datasets comprising nearly 700,000 pages of meeting minutes, transcripts, and briefing materials from the first four decades of the U.S. National Security Council. The research will demonstrate that hawkish and dovish advisers offer systematically different counsel, that foreign policy decisions grow more conflictual as hawks occupy a greater share of seats at the table, and that hawkish advisers appear to enjoy distinctive advantages in deliberations.

Bio:
Joshua D. Kertzer is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Government at Harvard University, and Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research specializes in the intersection of international security, political psychology, foreign policy, and public opinion. He is the author of Resolve in International Politics (Princeton University Press, 2016) and Abstraction in Experimental Design: Testing the Tradeoffs (Cambridge University Press, 2023), along with articles appearing in a variety of academic journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, Annual Review of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Foreign Affairs, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Politics, and World Politics. His scholarship has received a range of awards, including the International Studies Association’s Karl Deutsch Award, the International Society of Political Psychology’s Alexander George and Jim Sidanius awards, and the American Political Science Association's Merze Tate and Kenneth N. Waltz awards, among others.  At Harvard, he teaches classes on American foreign policy, international relations theory, and political psychology in international politics, for which he received Harvard’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching.