This paper uses the Poliheuristic Theory (PH), developed by Mintz, which incorporates both psychological and rational choice components in a synthesis of these previously isolated approaches, to explain decision making in Chinese foreign policy crises. China is an interesting initial case for this project for two reasons. One is its importance as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and rising superpower. The other is China's reputation as a nearly unique ''black box''Fan especially challenging caseFwith regard to decision making in foreign policy crises. Taken from the authoritative compilation of the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) Project, the nine cases (with available data) in which China is a crisis actor span the period from 1950 to 1996. A comparative analysis of Chinese decision making in times of crisis is used to test hypotheses derived from the PH. The hypotheses focus on how decisions are anticipated to occur over two stages. Principal expectations are that the non compensatory rule, which places priority on political considerations, will determine viable alternatives at the first stage, while choices more in line with expected value maximization or lexicographic ordering will characterize the second stage.Broad and complicated are the scope and themes of Chinese foreign policy. Most notably, China is seen widely as a unique power when dealing with international relations in general and foreign policy crises in particular. This paper uses the Poliheuristic Theory (PH), developed by Mintz (1993Mintz ( , 2003a, which incorporates both psychological and rational choice components in a synthesis of these previously isolated approaches, to explain decision making in Chinese foreign policy crises. Taken from the authoritative compilation of the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) Project, the nine cases (with available data) in which China is a crisis actor span the period from 1950 to 1996. A comparative analysis of Chinese decision making in times of crisis is used to test hypotheses derived from PH. The hypotheses focus on how decisions are anticipated to occur over two stages. Principal expectations are that the noncompensatory rule, which places priority on political considerations, will determine viable alternatives at the first stage, while choices more in line with expected value maximization or lexicographic ordering will characterize the second stage.

Foreign policy crises, as the last stage of interaction for states between peace and war, have received a great deal of attention vis-à-vis the study of decision making. The present study will seek to add to understanding crises in world politics through application of poliheuristic theory~PH! to decision making for two important states, Turkey and China. Both became critical actors during the Cold War in opposing ideological camps. In recent decades, both China and Turkey followed secular and pragmatic foreign policies. Each is a rising power in its region, with continuing efforts to integrate into the international community. These factors render China and Turkey the most challenging cases to PH theory and the differences between these two countries facilitate an interesting comparative analysis.This research builds on a previous analysis of Chinese crises, which found a considerable degree of agreement with predictions derived from PH~James and Zhang, 2005!. The present study moves that work forward in three ways. First, it introduces a new case, Turkey, to the analysis. Second, some additional hypotheses from PH are tested on both states.

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