The Political Limits to a Military Strategy: A Poliheuristic Analysis of U.S. Crisis Management in Syria (original) (raw)

The purpose of this research is to analyze U.S. crisis management strategy in Syria. The research uses the Poliheuristic Theory (PH) of decision making as an explanatory theoretical framework. It compares President Obama's consideration of military intervention in Syria at two phases; on August 31, 2013 following the confirmation that President Assad had used chemical weapons against civilians and on September 10, 2014, as a response to the security threat posed by Islamic State militants (IS). The results of the research confirmed that political biases in decision making have clearly influenced the U.S. decision making process, such that the punitive military strikes proposal was rejected in the first phase as it was considered non-compensatory while in the second intervention pitch, the strategy outlined was accepted as proper crisis management strategy.