Geographic Mental Maps and Foreign Policy Change

8Foreign Policy Decision-Making in the Carter Administration

Before we analyze how the Carter Administration’s geographic mental maps of the Middle East changed during the course of its 4-year term in office, it is essential to assess the decision-making structure of the Administration. The decision-making structure is defined as the form that defines the organizational relationships among the senior presidential advisors (including Cabinet heads) and between the President and those advisors (Newmann, 2004). We must first understand who was involved in foreign policy decision-making and how the decision process was organized in order to evaluate the dynamics involved in the communicative interactions (Hagan, 2001; Hermann, 2001). Moreover, as ...