The Politics of Policy Making in Defense and Foreign Affairs: Conceptual Models and Bureaucratic Politics

I read this book in 1980-something and I still remember it. It helped me to understand the models that politicians use (used?) to make important decisions in the face of uncertainty. While I am sure better techniques - including game theory - are currently used, the good old black box/grey box/blue box methods help explain a number of seemingly foolish decisions that were made by U.S. and Soviet leaders during the cold war.Make no mistake, this is rather difficult reading for most people. "Most people" refers to those who can't stomach, say, The Economist or Scientific American.

While this book is a serious piece of work, I enjoyed it as a perfect complement to Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum.' Too bad this book is not more widely read.