Lost in Transmission: Bureaucracy, Noise, and Communication in International Politics

Effective communications often determine whether states go to war or remain at peace. Yet decision-makers in one state frequently fail to understand what decision-makers in another are trying to say. Under what conditions do international communications fail? Patterns of communication within states shape communication effectiveness between states. Analysis of bureaucratic signaling processes before and after institutional reforms in India in the mid-1960s supports this theory.