The Individual and the Group

Abstract

When sufficient and convincing data is available to indicate an international situation which is deemed ‘intolerable’ by the administration, the President or PM will call together a group of advisers, with whom discussions will take place throughout the period of the crisis. This group of people — the ‘crisis team’ — form the core from which the nation’s crisis behaviour is determined, for example, a progressive evolution of the core group has taken place in the US since the Second World War. Though there are basically two forms to this group — formal or informal (ad hoc) — several variations have been formulated for various crises since then, for example, the President of the USA has the right to mould it to his preferred style of decision-making. Formally, at a high level, the NSC may be used or, at a lower level, the WSAG may be allowed to conduct American crisis policy. The informal technique is the use of an ad hoc decision-making unit, such as that used during the missile crisis and Korea 1950, composed of advisers of the President’s choosing.