Genuinely international in scope and drawing on a wide range of examples from around the world, this major new introduction to foreign policy analysis focuses on the key explanatory factors that underlie the foreign policies of states and other actors to show how theory can illuminate practice.
Author(s): Derek Beach
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: xiv+280
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrative Material
List of Abbreviations
1 Introduction: Analyzing Foreign Policy
Defining ‘foreign policy’
What is the analysis of foreign policy?
What is theory?
A theoretical toolbox for the study of foreign policy
The assumptions and core arguments of the theoretical tools
PART I WHAT STATES WANT
2 System-Level Factors
Structural realism: the survival of egoistic states in an anarchic world
Liberalism: institutions and interdependence creates a new context for states
Constructivism: different cultures of anarchy, national interests and identity
3 Domestic Factors
Neoclassical realism: anarchy with a domestic face
Liberalism: opening up the black box
Social constructivism at the state level: interest and identity construction
PART II DECISION-MAKING
4 Understanding the Choice Situation
The Rational Actor Model (RAM)
Cognitive theories: a more realistic understanding of the collection and processing of information
5 Making Choices
Cognitive and social-psychological theories of decision-making
The politics of choice: foreign policy decisions as the product of political battles
PART III WHAT STATES DO
6 Security Policies
War and security foreign policies
Why states prefer certain military/strategic options over others: the role of strategic culture
Preventing war: creating stable balances of power
Preventing war: deterrence and coercive diplomacy
Preventing war: strong liberal theories on transformations due to democracy and interdependence
Conflict resolution and the termination of international conflicts
7 Diplomacy
Negotiations as a form of diplomacy
Two-level games
Negotiations and culture
8 Economic Foreign Policies
Trade policies
Economic sanctions and aid: the sticks and carrots of economic statecraft
Foreign developmental aid
9 A Transformation of State Foreign Policy-Making?
Globalization and the end of the state-centric world?
Foreign policy-making beyond the state?
10 Analyzing Foreign Policy: Research Strategies and Methods
Choosing research questions
Choosing an appropriate research strategy
Deductive, theory-testing research designs
Inductive, theory-building research designs
The methodology of post-structuralist foreign policy analysis: a brief guide
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
