What is driving the dynamics of the situation?

Lebanon and Israel border

Analyzing Actors:

▪Analyzing international “incidents” is an important part of geopolitics and business strategy. When “countries” clash, what is really going on? Who are the main actors? What is driving the dynamics of the situation?

▪Choose a foreign policy incident/clash between two nations and then use the three Allison Frameworks (Models I "Rational Actor", II "Organizational Behaviour" and III "Personal & Bureaucratic Politics") to analyze it. Please briefly describe the incident itself, and then explain whether you think Allison’s Models,I, II or III – or some combination of them! – offers the best framework for understanding the situation, and the evidence you find to support this belief.

▪The incident can be recent or several decades old, but a good choice will include elements that allow you to use all three models to notice different actors and deduce different motives.

▪You may want to construct a timeline or a chronology or other tools to organize your thoughts, but this is not required.

▪It will be very hard to find a “pure” Model I, II, or II case – reality is messy – so it is OK to say that the case you have chosen has elements of each.