Context can never be captured completely, so decision governance should guide the search for it rather than try to inventory it. This text identifies five places where decision makers miss context, plus time, and proposes a counterfactual test for which context is decisive.
The United States and China have agreed to establish a formal dialogue on AI risks and a communication channel for AI-related incidents. The decision is a governance response to a class of risks in which neither state can independently control outcomes and where the value of communication may be greatest before the parties agree on substantive rules.
WSP Global has withdrawn its proposed acquisition of Arcadis after two rejected proposals and months of unsuccessful attempts to secure board engagement. The case shows how a decision can remain attractive in expected-value terms yet become infeasible when a required governance condition is not met.
The decision to shut down the hot-end operations of the former Ilva steelworks in Taranto can be read as a sequence in which health and environmental evidence, judicial review, industrial continuity, employment, and government transition planning interact across several connected decisions.
The European Central Bank’s 10 September 2026 rate increase can be read as a sequence in which a renewed energy shock changed the inflation outlook, prompted scenario-based assessment, and led to another conditional monetary-policy commitment.
On 9 September 2026, the IAEA Board of Governors decided to report Iran’s safeguards non-compliance to the UN Security Council and General Assembly. The case shows a decision process with visible authority, technical evidence, staged escalation and continuing monitoring, while the public record provides less detail about how alternatives and consequences were compared before the vote.
Taiwan’s September 2026 supplementary defence budget can be read as one decision within a longer sequence involving capability requirements, competing procurement designs, parliamentary oversight, and repeated changes to funding mechanisms. The case shows how Reaction, Explanation, Search, Decision, and Action can recur across connected institutional decisions.
The United States' September 2026 approval of a possible $5 billion sale of JDAM-related munitions to Saudi Arabia can be read as one stage in a larger decision process. The case illustrates how requests, interagency review, congressional notification, formal commitment, and implementation distribute decision rights across several actors and stages.
Avacopan Vifor was suspended for new UK patients after regulators concluded that the pivotal study supporting its authorisation could no longer reliably demonstrate efficacy. The case shows how new information can reopen an earlier decision and initiate a new cycle of Reaction, Explanation, Search, Decision, and Action.
The UBS capital requirement debate can be read as a sequence of events in a decision process. Using Reaction, Explanation, Search, Decision, and Action, the case shows how public policy decisions develop through investigation, alternative generation, institutional review, and successive commitments.