"The Role of Advisors: How Ideas Shape International Crises" a chapter by CWP alum Tyler Jost

This chapter examines how advisers shape international crises by supplying ideas that influence leaders' decisions. Leaders retain ultimate authority, but advisers actively filter information, frame options, and advocate policies that alter crisis trajectories. They exert influence through three mechanisms: offering counsel, controlling agendas, and applying political pressure. Historical cases like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Iraq War demonstrate how advisers shape policy through expertise, credibility, and strategic maneuvering. While leaders depend on advisers for information and analysis, they also design decision-making processes to regulate advisers’ influence. Finally, the chapter underscores how advisers' ideological dispositions, organizational affiliations, and social environments shape their interpretations of global events and, in turn, the policies they promote.

Chapter 2 The Role of Advisors: How Ideas Shape International Crises Get access Arrow Tyler Jost, Joshua D. Kertzer, Eric Min, Robert Schub https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197791004.003.0003  Pages 59–80 Published: August 2025

Tyler Jost is Assistant Professor of Political Science, International & Public Affairs and Watson Institute Assistant Professor of China Studies. His research focuses on national security decision-making, bureaucratic politics, and Chinese foreign policy. Dr. Jost’s current book project examines domestic institutions designed to decide and coordinate national security policy, such as the U.S. National Security Council. Dr. Jost completed his doctoral degree in the Department of Government at Harvard University. He has held postdoctoral fellowships in the International Security Program at the Kennedy School of Government, as well as in the China and the World Program at Columbia University. His research has been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Photo Credit: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/bureaucracies-at-war/ACFCE1F8DA53552F5F7AC7F872CE2C2B