“I Won't Back Down?” Complexity and Courage in Government Executive Decision Making

Senior government executives make many difficult decisions, but research suggests that individual cognitive limitations and the pathologies of “groupthink” impede their ability to make value‐maximizing choices. From this literature has emerged a normative model that Irving Janis calls “vigilant problem solving,” a process intended for the most complex decisions. To explore its use by senior public officials, the authors interviewed 20 heads of subcabinet‐level organizations in the U.S. federal government, asking how they made their most difficult decisions. The initial focus was on whether they employed a vigilant approach to making decisions that were informationally, technically, or politically complex. Most executives identified their single most‐difficult decision as one that required courage; they often made such courageous decisions after personal reflection and/or consultation with a small number of trusted advisors rather in ways that could be described as vigilant. The different approaches for making complex decisions, compared with those involving courage, are discussed and a contingency model of effective executive decision making is proposed that requires leaders (and their advisors) to be “ambidextrous” in their approach.     

Dissonance on the Brexit Menu: What does Britain Want to Eat?

This article focusses on the future of food in the UK in the context of Brexit. It examines the claims and promises made by Brexiteers before the referendum and juxtaposes these with the approach pursued by the Conservative‐led government since. The article argues that there is a clear dissonance between the two. This dissonance is the result of two important factors. First, the government is stuck in a non‐decision‐making mode, making it unable to pursue clear policies. Second, the food claims and promises made by Brexiteers are in opposition to what the vast majority of the public, food experts, farmers and food businesses want. Through exploring these two factors, and the Brexiteers’ claims and promises, the article explains what leaving the EU might mean for the future of food in the UK.     

Censors Get Smart: Evidence from Psiphon in Iran

Information controls are actions intended to deny, disrupt, monitor, or secure information for political ends. They can be implemented using a wide variety of technical and nontechnical means. Political contests over the control of information are heightened around important events, such as major anniversaries, armed conflicts, protests, and elections. In this paper, we offer a comparative case study of online censorship of the circumvention tool Psiphon during the Iranian elections in 2016 and 2013, drawing on unique access to analytics data from Psiphon. We find that the Iranian regime developed its censorship approach in two ways, deploying blocking that was more targeted and strategically timed in the more recent case. Evidence suggests that the regime relaxed censorship of Psiphon during the official campaign period for the 2016 election. The apparent objective of this new approach was to control access to information while minimizing the political consequences of doing so.     

An Unusual Cause of Headache and Sudden Death of a Young Sailor—Postmortem Computed Tomography and Histological Findings of a Fatal Retroperitoneal Malignant Mixed Germ Cell Tumor

A 26‐year‐old Caucasian sailor, with no past medical history aside from headache for the last 1 week, was found dead in his cabin. The body was stored in a refrigerator on board and disembarked for autopsy 3 days later. Autopsy showed a large, nodular, necrotic and hemorrhagic retroperitoneal mass, and smaller hemorrhagic nodules in the brain, lungs, liver, and left kidney, with the brain being markedly edematous. Both testes were descended and normal. Histologically, the retroperitoneal mass showed a malignant mixed germ cell tumor comprising choriocarcinoma, embryonal carcinoma, and teratoma components. Retroperitoneal extragonadal germ cell tumors are uncommon, and this case of a young male who presented with headache and sudden death due to metastases is extremely rare.