Major Actors and Determinants of a Country's Foreign Policy
Introduction
The concept of an International System or International Relations represents the notion that the world extends far beyond the borders of a particular country and that the world itself is more than just a sum of its parts, such as states existing in isolation from the rest. And still, international relations is more than just the sum of individual interactions among these parts. The idea of international system is thus based on the belief that there are general patterns of actions among the system’s actors. In most cases, the actors are allowed, each to make its own decisions and guidelines or set of rules that guide its actions on the international centre stage in a bid to get what it wants from the other actors. This is what is usually referred to as a country’s foreign policy.
Foreign policy is defined as a system of activities evolved by communities for changing the behaviour of other states and for adjusting their own activities to the international environment. “...when we speak generically about foreign policy and the decision-making process that produce it, we mean the goals that the officials heading states (and all the other transnational actors)seek abroad, values that underlie such goals and the means or instruments used to pursue them.”
To begin the inquiry into how foreign policy choices are made, we consider the setting for state choices and the external events, outside their borders that make such choices necessary. Thus, the factors that shape a state’s foreign policy and the decisions of all other global actors can be categorized at three basic levels of analysis.
System Level analysis-This is a world view that takes a “top-down” approach to analyzing global politics. The proponents of this level argue that the world’s socio-economic and political structure and the patterns of interaction (the international system) strongly influence the policies of states and other international actors.
State Level Analysis- This level is in line
The concept of an International System or International Relations represents the notion that the world extends far beyond the borders of a particular country and that the world itself is more than just a sum of its parts, such as states existing in isolation from the rest. And still, international relations is more than just the sum of individual interactions among these parts. The idea of international system is thus based on the belief that there are general patterns of actions among the system’s actors. In most cases, the actors are allowed, each to make its own decisions and guidelines or set of rules that guide its actions on the international centre stage in a bid to get what it wants from the other actors. This is what is usually referred to as a country’s foreign policy.
Foreign policy is defined as a system of activities evolved by communities for changing the behaviour of other states and for adjusting their own activities to the international environment. “...when we speak generically about foreign policy and the decision-making process that produce it, we mean the goals that the officials heading states (and all the other transnational actors)seek abroad, values that underlie such goals and the means or instruments used to pursue them.”
To begin the inquiry into how foreign policy choices are made, we consider the setting for state choices and the external events, outside their borders that make such choices necessary. Thus, the factors that shape a state’s foreign policy and the decisions of all other global actors can be categorized at three basic levels of analysis.
System Level analysis-This is a world view that takes a “top-down” approach to analyzing global politics. The proponents of this level argue that the world’s socio-economic and political structure and the patterns of interaction (the international system) strongly influence the policies of states and other international actors.
State Level Analysis- This level is in line
References: Goldstein Joshua . (5th Ed.). International Relations.Longman,New York.2004. Holsti J.K.International Politics:A framework for Analysis.Prentice-Hall International,New Jersey,1995. Kegley Charles and Eugene Wittkopf. (6th Ed.).World Politics:Trend and Transformation. .St.Martin’s Press,New York.1997. Russet Bruce and Harvey Starr.( 2nd Ed.). World Politics. Oxford University Press,1997. Rourke John (7th Ed.).International Politics on the World Stage.Dushkin/McGraw-Hill,1999. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_policy