Chapter 1:Integrating Psychology into International Relations.- Chapter 2:How rational are foreign policy decisions?.- Chapter 3:Prospects of loss and gain.- Chapter 4:Beliefs that shape decisions.- Chapter 5:Biased decisions.- Chapter 6:Emotional decisions.- Chapter 7:Personality matters.- Chapter 8:(Mis)trusted relations.- Chapter 9:Cognitive-psychological approaches from a comparative perspective.

This book focuses on foreign policy decision-making from the viewpoint of psychology. Psychology is always present in human decision-making, constituted by its structural determinants but also playing its own agency-level constitutive and causal roles, and therefore it should be taken into account in any analysis of foreign policy decisions. The book analyses a wide variety of prominent psychological approaches, such as bounded rationality, prospect theory, belief systems, cognitive biases, emotions, personality theories and trust to the study of foreign policy, identifying their achievements and added value as well as their limitations from a comparative perspective. Understanding how leaders in world politics act requires us to consider recent advances in neuroscience, psychology and behavioral economics. As a whole, the book aims at better integrating various psychological theories into the study of international relations and foreign policy analysis, as partial explanations themselves but also as facets of more comprehensive theories. It also discusses practical lessons that the psychological approaches offer since ignoring psychology can be costly: decision-makers need to be able reflect on their own decision-making process as well as the perspectives of the others. Paying attention to the psychological factors in international relations is necessary for better understanding the microfoundations upon which such agency is based.  Christer Pursiainen is Professor of Societal Security at the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) in Tromsø, Norway.   Tuomas Forsberg is Director of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki and Professor of International Relations at Tampere University, Finland.

“The authors present a comprehensive reassessment of the ideas that reside at the heart of the study of foreign policy. This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the nexus between foreign policy and international relations, and promises to be a critical resource for academics, students and policy makers alike for years to come.” (Professor Chris Alden, London School of Economics & Political Science, UK) “This book is an important contribution to the literature on the psychology of foreign policy. Every chapter has several case studies emphasizing the relevance to real-world international affairs. This will be a go-to book for scholars and students alike. Highly recommended!” (Professor Valerie M. Hudson, Texas A&M University, USA)

Provides an updated picture of the role of cognitive-psychological approaches Contributes considerably to the current debates on foreign policy decision-making Points out the achievements and promises of psychological approaches