Robert Jervis meets Herbert Blumer: Theoretical Reflections on the Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation.

For decades, the seminal work of Robert Jervis on cognitive biases and constraints of rational decision-making has influenced students' engagement with the psychological aspects of state action. In fact, he is to be credited for firmly anchoring psychology within our reasoning about the (foreign policy) behavior of governments. Yet, the traditional literature on the psychological dimensions of state action suffers from a regrettable limitation: in a methodologically individualist vein it often focuses solely on the cognitive processes that inform state leaders' decision-making, while neglecting interpersonal processes of "meaning-making" that enable such decision-making in the first place. American pragmatism in general and Herbert Blumer's approach of symbolic interactionism in particular can help us to transcend the approaches hitherto prevalent in IR. His emphasis on social-psychological processes allows for a new, intersubjective dimension in the study of proliferation. In applying the theoretical insights of a pragmatist/interactionist-inspired social psychology to the case of nuclear reversal in Switzerland, this paper seeks both to enrich our general understanding of the psychology of proliferation, and to trace the specific, underlying processes of "nuclear opinion-formation". ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]