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103 Foreign Aff. 173 (2024)
Thinking like a State: What Makes Foreign Policy Rational?

handle is hein.journals/fora103 and id is 175 raw text is: RESPONSES Thinking Like a State What Makes Foreign Policy Rational? Essence of Decision Making JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER AND SEBASTIAN ROSATO urprisingly, for an article assess- ing the prevalence of rationality in international politics (Why Smart Leaders Do Stupid Things, November/December 2023), Keren Yarhi-Milo's review of our book, How States Think, never offers its own defini- tion of the term. Yarhi-Milo does, how- ever, argue that irrational leaders resort to mental shortcuts, otherwise known as heuristics, or succumb to their emotions. But even this description of irrationality is wanting because it focuses on individ- uals and says nothing about irrationality at the collective or state level. JOHN J. MEARSHEIMER is R.Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. SEBASTIAN ROSATO is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. They are the authors of How States Think: The Rationality ofForeign Policy. For us, rationality has both an indi- vidual and a collective dimension. Rational leaders are homo theoreticus. They employ credible theories about the workings of the international sys- tem and use them to understand their situation and determine how best to navigate it. Rational states aggregate the views of key policymakers through a deliberative process, one marked by vigorous and uninhibited debate. Yarhi-Milo suggests that we think realism is the only credible theory out there. Thus, if leaders act on the basis of theories other than realism, they are not acting rationally. But that is simply wrong. Our book is not a brief for realism. We emphasize that there are several credible realist and liberal theories and that leaders acting on the basis of any of them are rational. Indeed, Yarhi-Milo notes that our inventory of credible theories includes the various liberal theories underpin- ning NATO expansion and the U.S. grand strategy of liberal hegemony, which sought to expand membership in international institutions, foster an open world economy, and spread democracy around the globe. Ultimately, Yarhi-Milo commends our definition ofrationality. In her opin- ion, our book proves that leaders rely JANUARY/FEBRUARY 20247 173

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