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Article: US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Middle East Quarterly
- Article date:
- January 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Middle East Forum. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis. By David Houghton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 252 pp. $75 ($29.99, paper; $10, digital).
Houghton, lecturer in government at the University of Essex, has written a case study on the Iran hostage crisis, drawing on the literature of cognitive psychology to explain foreign policy decision-making. The book is fascinating because of the manner in which the author casts his questions--as puzzles to be solved with corresponding solutions. At issue are two questions:
(1) Why did Iranian students, with the tacit support of the Iranian leaders, seize the U.S. embassy in Tehran? Houghton considers ...