Do States Act Rationally and How Do We Know What They Think?

Alexander L. Vuving

Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, 2025, vol. 12, issue 3, 410-423

Abstract: This review essay discusses two interrelated questions that have emerged in recent international relations literature, ‘How do states think?’ and ‘How do we know what states think?’, with an empirical focus on the Indo-Pacific. Lurking behind these questions is often the assumption that states are rational actors. This essay will therefore examine the concept of rationality, the state of the art about the rationality of states, and the strategic thinking of several states in the Indo-Pacific. I argue that it is the observer’s approach to a state that determines the state’s rationality according to Mearsheimer and Rosato’s homo theoreticus benchmarks, which model states as machines and angels rather than humans. When seen as rich tapestries rather than black boxes, states in the Indo-Pacific often violate this rationality standard. Based on insights from cognitive science, I suggest some directions for rethinking the rationality of foreign policy and reconceptualising the rational actor assumption.

Keywords: Rationality; rational actor; international relations theory; grand strategy; state behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23477970251347730 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:asseca:v:12:y:2025:i:3:p:410-423

DOI: 10.1177/23477970251347730

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().