Renegade Regimes and Foreign Policy Crises

The main puzzle that leads me to conceive this project is the seeminglyirrational behavior of certain leaders like Slobodan Milosevic and SaddamHussein during crises with the US. Why did they risk war with the UnitedStates while the odds are clearly against them? Why do they sometimes escalatethe crisis to the point of war and sometimes seek conciliation and settlement?Thefore the central question of this study is: what are the dynamicsbehind the foreign policy behavior of renegade regimes/rogue states duringcrises? The cases include crises with Iraq (1991) Serbia (1999) and NorthKorea (1994). I created a theoretical framework that brings together psychologicaltheories of foreign policy analysis and rational choice models andincorporates systemic and domestic constraints that leaders face to analyzetheir foreign policy behavior. This book is primarily directed towards researchersinterested in foreign policy international security and rogue states.Policymakers in the foreign policy community journalists and people whoare interested in how can we deal with emerging threats to peace andsecurity hopefully would find this book helpful and informative.