The second point is that the psychology of the actors appears fully exposed / fully revealed, for example as in the tapes recorded by JF Kennedy. The third point is that we are very close to internal processes flows. The focus concentrates very much on the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM), which creates a bias with pitfalls which must be avoided.

sources:

History - World Wars: John F Kennedy and the Cuban Missile ... - BBC
www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/.../kennedy_cuban_missile_0...
Jump to The ExComm and the secret tapes - Included in the ExComm were the regular participants in National Security Council meetings, plus Kennedy's ...

National Security Council Executive Committee (EXCOMM) - JFK Library
https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset.../JFKWHP/1962/.../JFKWHP-1...
President John F. Kennedy meets with members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) regarding the crisis in Cuba. Clockwise ...

JFK Consults ExComm About the Growing Missile Crisis | Miller Center
https://millercenter.org/.../jfk-consults-excomm-about-the-g...
JFK Consults ExComm About the Growing Missile Crisis. In this recording, President Kennedy consults with the Executive Committee of the National Security ...

EXCOMM - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EXCOMM
The Executive Committee of the National Security Council was a body of United States government officials that convened to advise President John F. Kennedy ...

NSC ExComm Meetings, 1962-1963
https://historyinpieces.com/.../meetings-excomm-executive-co...
A complete list of the meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, a special group created by President John F. Kennedy.

October 27, 1962: Transcripts of the Meetings of the ExComm
https://www.belfercenter.org/.../McGeorgeBundyJamesGBlightOc...
ExComm. Transcriber's Note. Ln the summer of 1985 I went to the Kennedy Library and listened to the Presidential Recordings of meetings that I had attended ...

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Note added at 1 hr (2019-08-09 19:02:07 GMT)
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Sources of cognitive bias – avoiding the pitfalls - Testing Stage
https://testingstage.com/en/sources-of-cognitive-bias-avoidi...
Researchers have taken a careful look at the way humans think and they have noticed how sometimes people are influenced by a number of factors which ...

How to avoid the cognitive bias pitfalls | ACCA Global
https://www.accaglobal.com/lk/en/member/discover/.../cogbias...
Sep 1, 2017 - a focus on existing evidence and a disregard for absent evidence ('what you see is all there is') greater sensitivity to losses than gains ('loss aversion')

French term (edited): [la focale est très concentrée sur] l’échelle des chefs d’exécutif

what they are referring to is the "level" of decision making in a state bureaucracy - here the Federal administration of the USA, but it's more or less the same in any other country.

At "the top" you have those who define strategies / policies, that are put in practice at the "executive level" - those who apply policies (but do not define them).

What they are saying is that by focusing on those who are in charge of applying strategies / policies decided at a "higher level" you are limiting your understanding of events (as you are missing the logic / reasoning of those taking these decisions / policies)


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Note added at 4 hrs (2019-08-09 21:38:42 GMT)
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here "l’échelle" is an abbreviation for "l'échelle hiérarchique"

à l’échelle des chefs d’exécutif = au niveau des chefs d’exécutif dans l'échelle hiérarchique

my take

I think this is might be a valid idea here because i think "l'echelle" has quit an emphatic usage here, highlighting the many aspects of this level of power, rather than simply implying or suggesting one Idea. Therefore, using the literal translation in English could work in the context, and it's general nature could also incorporate all these aspects, eg. Power, hierarchy, privilege etc etc, found at this level.

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Note added at 13 hrs (2019-08-10 07:04:15 GMT)
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Or even:

"... Upper echelons of the political executive"

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Note added at 17 hrs (2019-08-10 10:43:50 GMT)
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"Coordinated action among the municipalities and the UPPER ECHELON OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER made it possible to start the process of land privatisation and...."
(Ref: "The Costa Rica Reader, History, Culture, Politics", Pg.60,
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6GMY-KA4XAIC&printsec=fr...