ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the central characteristics of US foreign policy decision making in the Central American/Caribbean region as noted by key scholars in this field. It shows how the features of the modified cybernetic decision-maker may be represented in the format of a rule-based computational model, in general terms, and in specific terms by the UNCLESAM model. The formal, computational model we designed representing US foreign policy action as a modified cybernetic decision-maker was called UNCLESAM. In order for UNCLESAM to "make decisions," it must first be presented with timely information concerning the situation at hand. Relations primitives represent static relationships or connections between actors, the most common relations primitives involved in UNCLESAM being the various political relationships between actors, such as leader, president, and diplomatic relations. The designing and application of UNCLESAM, however, also demonstrated in important ways the need for models with more sophisticated architectures to further represent and explore the process of US foreign policy making.
