10. Foreign Policy

2018 ◽  
pp. 286-312
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
State Level ◽  
System Level ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Nation States ◽  
External Relations ◽  
The Individual

This chapter examines theories and approaches involved in foreign policy analysis. Foreign policy analysis is concerned with the study of the management of external relations and activities of nation-states, as distinguished from their domestic policies. The chapter first explains the concept of foreign policy before discussing various approaches to foreign policy analysis. It then evaluates the arguments of major theories by using a ‘level-of-analysis’ approach that addresses the international system level, the nation-state level, and the level of the individual decision maker. It also presents a case-study on the Gulf War to illustrate how insights from various approaches to foreign policy analysis can be brought together. A note on foreign policy experts and ‘think tanks’ is included to highlight the extent of research on the subject which extends well beyond universities.

10. Foreign Policy

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
State Level ◽  
System Level ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Nation States ◽  
External Relations ◽  
The Individual

This chapter examines theories and approaches involved in foreign policy analysis. Foreign policy analysis is concerned with the study of the management of external relations and activities of nation-states, as distinguished from their domestic policies. The chapter first explains the concept of foreign policy before discussing various approaches to foreign policy analysis. It then evaluates the arguments of major theories by using a ‘level-of-analysis’ approach that addresses the international system level, the nation-state level, and the level of the individual decision maker. It also presents a case-study on the Gulf War to illustrate how insights from various approaches to foreign policy analysis can be brought together. A note on foreign policy experts and ‘think tanks’ is included to highlight the extent of research on the subject which extends well beyond universities.

9. Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 249-274
Author(s):  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller ◽  
Robert Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
State Level ◽  
System Level ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Nation States ◽  
External Relations ◽  
The Individual

This chapter examines theories and approaches involved in foreign policy analysis. Foreign policy analysis (FPA) is concerned with the study of the management of external relations and activities of nation-states, as distinguished from their domestic policies. The chapter first explains the concept of foreign policy before discussing various approaches to foreign policy analysis. It then evaluates the arguments of major theories by using a ‘level-of-analysis’ approach that addresses the international system level, the nation-state level, and the level of the individual decision maker. It also presents a case-study on the Gulf War to illustrate how insights from various approaches to foreign policy analysis can be brought together. The chapters ends with reflections on Donald Trump’s foreign policy and a discussion of how FPA theories have combined domestic and international factors.

Role Theory and Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Thies
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
System Level ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Audience Effects ◽  
The Individual

Role theory is an approach to the study of foreign policy that developed in the interdisciplinary field of social psychology and can be appropriately applied at the individual, state, and system level analyses. Role theory, which first attracted attention in the foreign policy literature after the publication of K. J. Holsti’s 1970 study of national role conception, does not refer to a single theory, but rather a family of theories, an approach, or perspective that begins with the concept of role as central to social life. The major independent variables in the study of roles include role expectations, role demands, role location, and audience effects (including cues). In addition, role theory contains its own model of social identity based on three crucial dimensions: status, value, and involvement. The 1987 publication of Stephen G. Walker’s edited volume, Role Theory and Foreign Policy Analysis, set the stage for further advances in the use of role theory in both the fields of foreign policy and international relations. According to Walker, role theory has a rich language of descriptive concepts, the organizational potential to bridge levels of analyses, and numerous explanatory advantages. This makes role theory an extremely valuable approach to foreign policy analysis. Role theory also offers a way of bringing greater integration between foreign policy analysis and international relations, especially through constructivist meta-theory.

scholarly journals Karzai's foreign policy analysis from the perspective of the Linkage theory

2017 ◽  
pp. 73-97
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linkage Model

Hamid Karzai during the interim, transitional and elective government (two courses) from 2002 to 2014, was the Afghanistan president that, in terms of increasing communication channels across the region and the world, provided widespread assistance to the international community and the development of a unique democratic era behind. Afghanistan's changing foreign policy during Karzai's time has made foreign policy management and decision-making more important than ever, and from this perspective the question of the research has been formed; what is the influential component of foreign policy decisions during the reign of Hamid Karzai? the model of James N. Rosenau's Linkage model was chosen to analyze Karzai's foreign policy in order to answer this question.According to this model, in countries such as Afghanistan, which are politically open and economically developing, respectively the individual components, international system, role variable, society and government have the most influence in foreign policy decisions of the country. Using this model, the research findings showed that during the study period, although the individual component and the international system had the most impact on foreign policy decisions in the country, but contrary to the Rosenau's Linkage model, Afghanistan's foreign policy analysis in other cases with the model And the component of the role and society is lower than the role of government in foreign policy decision-making. Research findings are an appropriate response to the failure to take advantage of opportunities and control threats in foreign policy of the country

Realism in Foreign Policy Analysis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Wivel
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
Relative Size ◽  
External Action ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Action Space ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Foreign Policies

Realists explain foreign policy in terms of power politics. They disagree on the exact meaning of power and on how and to what extent politics is likely to influence policy. But they all find that power has a strong materialist component and that the influence of domestic politics on foreign policy is likely to vary with security challenges stemming from the external environment. The relative size of a state’s material resources is likely to influence its ability to set agendas and influence specific decisions and outcomes in international affairs. And the nature of the strategic environment, most importantly whether the security and survival of the state is under immediate threat, is likely to influence the relative weight of domestic influences on foreign policy. In sum, great powers enjoy a bigger external action space in their foreign policies than weaker states, and secure states enjoy a bigger external action space in their foreign policies than insecure states. Realism is a top-down approach to explaining foreign policy. Realists begin from the anarchic structure of the international system. They argue that the absence of a legitimate monopoly of power in the international system create a strong incentive for states to focus on survival as their primary goal and self-help as the most important means to achieving this goal. However, “survival” and “self-help” may take many forms. These forms are shaped by mechanisms of socialization and competition in the international system and systemic incentives are filtered through the perceptions of foreign policy decision makers and domestic institutions enabling and restraining the ability of decision makers to respond to external incentives. Neoclassical realists combine these factors in order to explain specific foreign policies. Offensive realists and defensive realists focus on the effects of structure on foreign policy, but with contrasting assumptions about the typical behavior of states: defensive realists expect states to pursue balancing policies, whereas offensive realists argue that only by creating an imbalance of power in its own favor will a state be able to maximize its security. In addition to being an analytical approach for explaining foreign policy, realists often serve as foreign policy advisors or act in the function of public intellectuals problematizing and criticizing foreign policy. This illustrates the potential for realism as an analytical, problem-solving and critical approach to foreign policy analysis. However, it also shows the strains within realism between ambitions of creating general theories, explaining particular foreign policies, and advising on how to make prudent foreign policy decisions.

Great Power and Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Martinez Machain ◽  
Rebecca Kaye ◽  
Jared Oestman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Major Power ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Minor Powers

Great powers have traditionally played a major role in the study of foreign policy. From a variety of work on foreign policy analysis, it is known that great powers are more active in their foreign policy than other states in the international system are. Whether the actions are disbursing foreign aid, creating alliances, conflict involvement, or others, studies will often control for great power status, with the underlying expectation being that major powers will be more likely to utilize these foreign policy tools. In fact, when considering relevant dyads in quantitative studies of foreign policy analysis, states have to be contiguous for the dyad to be considered relevant, but an exception is made for dyads containing at least one major power, given the ability of great powers to project their power beyond their borders. Key literature on the foreign policy behavior of great powers discusses different ways of defining great powers. In particular, the debate over defining great power status has focused on whether a great power should be defined solely on its physical capabilities, or also on intangible factors, such as its foreign policy interests or whether the state is recognized as a great power by others in the international system. Further, there are questions of whether great powers have to be military powers or whether economic superiority is enough to classify a state as a great power. There is also the issue of regional powers: states that are clearly military, economic, and political leaders within a limited geographic region, but not at the global level. Should these states be considered great powers, or should that classification be reserved for global powers? The literature on great-power foreign policy also discusses cooperative and conflictual behaviors of great powers in the international system. It addresses great power war, focusing on how they are more conflict prone than minor powers, and reviews the issues that drive great powers to engage in conflict, such as positional issues and the intent to shape the international system to their liking. It also discusses a variety of foreign policy actions, both coercive and cooperative, that major powers are more likely to engage in than their minor-power counterparts. In addition, there is much work done on the relationships between great powers and between great powers and minor powers, stressing the competitive nature of major-power interactions and the trade-off between economic and military security and policy concessions that defines major-minor power interactions.

Foreign Policy and the Social Construction of State Identity

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Kowert
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
State Level ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
State Identity ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Foreign policy analysis benefits from careful attention to state identity. After all, identity defines the field itself by making it possible to speak both of policies and of a domain that is foreign. For some scholars, identity has proven useful as a guide to agency and, in particular, to agent preferences. For others, identity has served as a guide to social or institutional structure. Theories of state identity can be divided into three categories: conditions internal to agents, social interactions among agents, and “ecological” encounters with a broader environment. Internal conditions refer to either processes or constraints that operate within the agent under consideration. In the case of the state, these may include domestic politics, the individual characteristics of citizens or other internal actors, and the collective attributes of these citizens or other actors. Although internal causes are not social at the state level, they nevertheless have social implications if they give rise to state identity, and they may themselves be social at a lower level. The social interactions of states themselves constitute a second source of identity, one that treats states as capable of interacting like persons. This approach essentially writes large social and psychological theories, replacing individuals with the state. Finally, the ecological setting or broader environment is a third possible source of identity. The environment may be material, ideational, or discursive, and treated as an objective or a subjective influence.

scholarly journals Processo Decisório e Política Externa nos Pequenos Estados da Periferia: Cabo Verde e Guiné-Bissau | Decision-Making Process and Foreign Policy in Small Peripheral States: Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-185
Author(s):  
Timóteo Saba M'bunde
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Cape Verde ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Cabo Verde ◽  
Guinea Bissau

O texto questiona as perspectivas mais conservadoras do campo de Análise de Política Externa (APE), as quais se subsidiam de pressupostos teóricos do realismo para refutar a validade do uso de APE e processo decisório, como ferramentas cabíveis a estudar a política externa dos Estados da periferia do sistema internacional. O texto busca identificar o processo decisório de política externa em Cabo Verde e Guiné-Bissau e apresentar pistas pelas quais é possível lançar mão de APE para estudar a política externa desses dois países luso-africanos. O trabalho também apresenta alguns aspectos dos modelos políticos e constitucionais de Cabo Verde e Guiné-Bissau e a influência que os respectivos contextos políticos exercem sobre a formulação de política externa, caracterizando o tipo de processo decisório que tende a se predominar em cada um dos dois contextos.ABSTRACTThe paper question the most conservatives outlook of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) field, that subsidize from theoretical realism assumptions to refute the validity of the use of FPA and decision-making process as appropriate tools to study the foreign policy of international system peripheral states. The paper seeks to identify the decision-making process of foreign policy in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau and provides clues by which it’s possible to make use of FPA to study and understand the foreign policy of both luso-africans countries. The work also presents some aspects of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde political and constitutional models and the influence that the respective political contexts have on foreign policy formulation, characterizing the kind of decision-making that tends to predominate in each of the two contexts.Palavras-chave: processo decisório; política externa; Estados da periferia.Keywords: decision-making; foreign policy; peripheral States.Recebido em 14 de Agosto de 2017 | Aceito em 29 de Novembro de 2017.Received on August 14, 2017 | Accepted on November 29, 2017. DOI: 10.12957/rmi.2016.29990

Methods of Foreign Policy Analysis

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip B.K. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Historical Methods ◽  
Events Data

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) is the study of how states, or the individuals that lead them, make foreign policy, execute foreign policy, and react to the foreign policies of other states. This topical breadth results in a subfield that encompasses a variety of questions and levels of analysis, and a correspondingly diverse set of methodological approaches. There are four methods which have become central in foreign policy analysis: archival research, content analysis, interviews, and focus groups. The first major phase of FPA research is termed “comparative foreign policy.” Proponents of comparative foreign policy sought to achieve comprehensive theories of foreign policy behavior through quantitative analysis of “events” data. An important strand of this behavioral work addressed the relationship between trade dependence and foreign policy compliance. On the other hand, second-generation FPA methodology largely abandoned universalized theory-building in favor of historical methods and qualitative analysis. Second-generation FPA researchers place particular emphasis on developing case study methodologies driven by social science principles. Meanwhile, the third-generation of FPA scholarship combines innovative quantitative and qualitative methods. Several methods of foreign policy analysis used by third-generation FPA researchers include computer assisted coding, experiments, simulation, surveys, network analysis, and prediction markets. Ultimately, additional attention should be given to determining the degree to which current methods of foreign policy analysis allow predictive or prescriptive conclusions. FPA scholars should also focus more in reengaging foreign policy analysis with the core of international relations research.

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