ISA Paper 2011 The Operational Code of French Diplomacy 1918-1923.

An Operational Code is a prism that influences the actor's perceptions and diagnoses of the flow of political events, his definitions and estimates of particular situations... [and] provides norms, standards, guidelines that influence the actor's choice of strategy and tactics, his structuring and weighing of alternative courses of action. Such a belief system influences but does not unilaterally determine decision making; it is an important but not the only variable that shapes decision-making behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]