Political Science

Group think as a concept was derived by Irving Janis. It is a disastrous and faulty decision making process by a group.  In group thinking, the members ignore quality decisions by failing to explore all the possible alternatives, not being critical enough and becoming very selective while gathering information. Groupthink is a process as explained by Janis where a group follows a given set of patterns that cause disastrous consequences. The possible consequences for groups are enormous.

On the other hand, foreign policy of any country outlines the guidelines on how a country interacts with other countries in terms of economic, political, social as well as military resources. Since the foreign policies are designed to promote a countrys economic prosperity and to protect its national interests, ideological goals and national security, it becomes necessary to avoid any form of groupthink in the formulation and implementation of such foreign policy goals and objectives.

In a foreign policy implementation, groupthink leads to some form of mental deficiency, truth testing, and moral pre-judgment in the interest of the groups solidarity. Both formal as well as informal efforts are made to discourage dialogue of divergent ideas and views that affect the acting nations and to some extent the non-actor nations as well. Groups apply great pressure on the individual members so that they conform. Opposing ideas are dismissed and any person or outside group which conflicts the decision receives no attention from the group. Group members show great favouritism to their ideas in the way at which information is formulated and evaluated, therefore guaranteeing that their own ideas will automatically win. When a group, for example, church, business, school, non profit, little league or other organization, discerns how it can prevent groupthink, it can arrive at a far better decision for the grouping itself and for those that the group represents.

Janis (1972, p. 9) brings together facts regarding two fiascos in an attempt to bring out the negative impact of group think in foreign policy decision making and implementation. These are the Bay of Pigs and the Israeli-Arab war of 1967.

Yalom explains that groupthink creates extreme optimism and confidence that encourages taking exceedingly high risks. The Bay of Pigs attack was anticipated to aggravate popularity for a revolt against Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro had overthrown the American-backed autocrat Fulgencio Batista. However, it instead gave Fidel a military triumph and a lasting symbol of Cuban opposition to American attack. This happened because the American Government overlooked the military preparedness of Fidel Castro and his government because it relied heavily on propaganda and the notion that America was not to appear as having had been involved in the invasion. They did not only undertake an extremely high risk, but they also relied on information that had been poorly searched and it eventually turned out to be propaganda hence giving Fidel Castro a hedge against the impact of the revolt.

During the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, groupthink that was deployed by the Arab nations that attacked Israeli eventually ruined their strategy to the advantage of Israel. The allies that comprised of Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Syria were not able to conquer Israel in the long run. The war however taught them a great lesson on the consequences of groupthink.

In conclusion therefore, information errors that are inherent in groupthink decision making are directly connected to adverse outcomes. Such errors include lack of proper leadership, procedures, overestimation of group capacity, closed-mindedness, and pressures toward uniformity.