Foreign Policy - Actors, Theories, Cases
Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases
Chapter 1 – The History and Evolution of Foreign Policy Analysis by Valerie M. Hudson
Key Points * Foreign Policy: The strategy or approach chosen by the national government to achieve its goals in its relations with external entities; includes decisions to do nothing * Foreign Policy Analysis: seeks to explain foreign policy, or FP behavior, with reference to the theoretical ground of human decision makers, acting singly and in groups. * Classical FPA scholarship (1954-1993): Two generations of FPA * 1st generation (1954-1973) – work produced that created FPA * 2nd generation (1974-1993) – work produced that built on foundations created during 1st gen; self-reflection and criticism during this period revealed inconsistencies in CFP (big decline in popularity until late ‘80s) * FPA tried to create middle-range theories; theories that weren’t general accounts of all FP behavior but where instead accounts of either the FP of some types of states or FP in types of situations (e.g. crises) * 3 paradigmatic works laid the foundations of FPA * Richard Snyder, Bruck, and Sapin on foreign policy decision making * James Rosenau on developing a theory of comparative foreign policy * Harold and Margaret Sprout on the psycho-social milieu (environment/setting) of foreign policy making * Several emphases, corresponding to levels of analysis in FPA, began to emerge from this foundation, including work on small/large groups, events data, political psychology of leaders, culutural effects on foreign policy, domestic political contestation effects on FP descision making, and the influence of national attributes and systemic characteristics on FP behavior. * FPA retains its emphases on actor-specific theory, multicasual explanations, interdisciplinarity, and the explanations of FP processes, as well as FP outcomes * Current FPA scholarship explores linkages between the levels of FPA
Chapter 1 – The History and Evolution of Foreign Policy Analysis by Valerie M. Hudson
Key Points * Foreign Policy: The strategy or approach chosen by the national government to achieve its goals in its relations with external entities; includes decisions to do nothing * Foreign Policy Analysis: seeks to explain foreign policy, or FP behavior, with reference to the theoretical ground of human decision makers, acting singly and in groups. * Classical FPA scholarship (1954-1993): Two generations of FPA * 1st generation (1954-1973) – work produced that created FPA * 2nd generation (1974-1993) – work produced that built on foundations created during 1st gen; self-reflection and criticism during this period revealed inconsistencies in CFP (big decline in popularity until late ‘80s) * FPA tried to create middle-range theories; theories that weren’t general accounts of all FP behavior but where instead accounts of either the FP of some types of states or FP in types of situations (e.g. crises) * 3 paradigmatic works laid the foundations of FPA * Richard Snyder, Bruck, and Sapin on foreign policy decision making * James Rosenau on developing a theory of comparative foreign policy * Harold and Margaret Sprout on the psycho-social milieu (environment/setting) of foreign policy making * Several emphases, corresponding to levels of analysis in FPA, began to emerge from this foundation, including work on small/large groups, events data, political psychology of leaders, culutural effects on foreign policy, domestic political contestation effects on FP descision making, and the influence of national attributes and systemic characteristics on FP behavior. * FPA retains its emphases on actor-specific theory, multicasual explanations, interdisciplinarity, and the explanations of FP processes, as well as FP outcomes * Current FPA scholarship explores linkages between the levels of FPA