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Political Science 252 - Foreign Policy Analysis Summary
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Complete lecture notes for Political Science 252 (Foreign Policy Analysis), supplemented by the prescribed readings (2018).
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Politicl Siiencie ƌ5ƌ – Foreignnc Poliiy ncclysiisiTextbook: Alden, C & Aran, A. 2016. Foreign Policy Analysis: New Approaches. Routledge
- Online class test: 14th August
- Essay: 22 August
- Semester Test: 6th September
Overview
o what does foreign policy refer to?
o What does the foreign policy domain encompass?
o Sources of foreign policy
o Actors
o Foreign policy for what (purposes)
Inctroduitonc
o Foreign policy: as an ever-changing story of how states, insttutons and people engage with one another within a
dynamic internatonal system.
Shaped by history and insttutonal practces, foreign policy makers navigate the increasingly blurred lines
between domestc policies and external environments using instruments as varied as diplomacy, sanctons and
new media to produce policies that further state interests
o Foreign policy straddles numerous levels of actorship and decision making
i.e. state, non-state, governments, individuals, frms
as well as issues: climate, conventonal security threats
o Traditonal channels of diplomacy important (e.g. multlateral/bilateral summits), but increasing too the non-traditonal
(social media – Trump’s twiter)
o Everyday events can have major ramifcatons for state’s foreign policies
o As a research feld, foreign policy analysis (FPA) tries to:
Explain how and why states conduct themselves the way they do in the internatonal arena
Make sense of the interplay between a state’s domestc and its external environments and relatedly, the
state’s internatonal conduct
o Foreign policy: states and other actor’s explicit artculaton of their internatonal goals and objectves addresses to
others in the internatonal system
Foreign policy White Papers (published)
Foreign policy strategy documents (published)
Statements by the head of state or senior government ofcials
Communiques (writen published agreements afer having met through for example the BRICS summit)
Speeches (e.g. PW Botha’s ‘Rubicon’ speech of 1985
Votng positons in the multlateral forums (e.g. )N)
o Diplomacy: the practcal artculaton of an actor’s external aspiratons, purposes and policies, and entails the ofcial
practses through which actors (generally, but not exclusively states) interact with each other
o Traditonally foreign policy and diplomacy were the preserve of state actvites, but increasingly other actors have
foreign policy (transnatonal) impacts:
Non-state actors are also important (e.g. Multnatonal Corporatonss Al Shabaab, ISIL, Bill & Melinda Gates
foundaton, NGO’s)
Sub-state actors (e.g. provincial or city governments, trade missions, twin civil pacts)
Benjamin Barber (2013) – If Mayors Rules the World: Dysfunctonal Natons, Rising Cites: in an
interdependent world and with increasing economic dominance of world/global cites (London,
Shanghai, Tokyo, New Yok) city governments perhaps are more efcient than the naton state
o Therefore increasing importance of:
Economic diplomacy (both state and non-state)
Track-two diplomacy (e.g. NGO’s, lobbying governments such as internatonal campaign to Ban Landmines,
R2P)
Track-three diplomacy (NGO’s interactng with and campaigning each other)
Celebrity diplomacy (Bono, Rob Geldof)
o Distncton between ‘high politcs’ and ‘low politcs’ is less relevant
Theoreticl cpprocihesi to foreignnc poliiy cncclysiisi
, o Foreign policy analysis is a sub-feld of internatonal relatons (IR), therefore it refects the intellectual traditons and
trends of IR
Means we see the same kinds of theoretcal frameworks dominatng in the feld of FPA
Similar debates and issues concerning epistemology, methodology and/or the roe of values
Can class approaches in terms of IR’s major perspectves
Realism // liberalism-pluralism // critcal perspectves
o One key diference however:
Lies in prevailing levels of analysis
Whereas IR mostly state-centric and focuses on state-level or systematc explanatons
FPA encompasses analysis at the:
Micro – (individual)s
• The role of individual leadership in foreign policy
• Also known as the study of foreign policy decision-making
• Analysis psychology, cogniton and personality
Meso – (domestc context)s and
• Domestc context and determinants of foreign policy
• Role of domestc politcs or public opinion
• Role of domestc interest groups
• Role of bureaucracies in foreign policy decision-making
Macro-levels (systematc) levels
• Foreign policy as shaped by systematc factors
• Explains foreign policy as outcome of:
- Power distributon in internatonal system
- State atributes
- State (natonal) interests
o In chronological terms FPA was frst dominated by insight from Realism and neo-realism (i.e. macro-perspectves)
Especially shaped by work of Hans J. Morgenthau (politcs among natons)s Kenneth Waltz (Man, the state and
war)s Henry Kissinger (American Foreign Policy)
Realism: power politcs – how is power acquired and exercised
Foreign policy is determined by two main factors:
• Maintaining balance of power (especially under conditons of the Cold War and MAD)
• To always serve natonal interest frst: ideology is important, but so too is pragmatsm
Neo-realism:
Power rivalries a functon of the nature of the internatonal system = anarchy
Therefore, foreign policy should accommodate relatve distributons of power in the world
• States should strive to maximise their power vis-à-vis other states, and their foreign policy
should refect this
Realism and Neo-realism show the Billiard view
Realism in Foreign Policy Analysis
o Ratonal Actors model – state is seen as unitary and ratonal actor
o Key assumpton in realism is natonal objectve and natonal interests
o Foreign policy is a result of state actors’ deliberaton of how they can maximise gains and minimise costs (utlity
maximisaton)
o What consttutes natonal interest: pursuit of security and the efort to enhance material wealth
This sometmes places states in competton with one another, which can limit the scope for cooperaton and
enhance self-interested strategies.
o Later, other scholars began to critcise the assumptons and claims of Realism
o From viewpoint of foreign policy, arguments were made that:
The behaviouralist approach does not give satsfactory explanatons
Behavioualism focuses on measurable and observable things = foreign policy outputs (such as actons
or decisions)
But what of things not accounted for by this?
• Intangibles in foreign policy decision-making?
• Role of individual leaders’ personality or psychology (e.g. JFK, Fidel Castro in the 1960’s)
• Important also to study the process, not merely the output of foreign policy decisions
Critque of ratonality/Ratonal Actor Model
Who is to say that states are ratonal actors driven utlitarian (cost-beneft) consideratons
Important to unpack the ‘black box’ of foreign policy decision-making
Bureaucracies/ministers of foreign policy
Executve vs legislatve vs judicial authority in a given state
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