This book shows that foreign policy decision-making is not as "cool-minded" as it is deemed to be. It analyses how the lessons of history influence decision-making and argues that, during crises, a decision-makers affect (anger and fear) can bias him towards straightforward responses of the fight or flight type. This insight also prompts a fresh answer to the question what analogies are likely to be picked from the vast pool of historical events:
a) behaviourally straightforward analogies, with forceful imagery and clear-cut affective connotations; b) analogies that are already established...