Summary: International Relations Endterm

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• 1 International Relations Endterm

• 1.1 7

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• What is Foregin Policy?

  The study of management of external relations and activities of nation-states, as distinguished from their domestic policies

• Why do governments want to influence the goals and activities of other actors?

  Because they cannot completely control them because they exist and operate beyond their sovereignty

• What is the traditional approach to Foreign Policy analysis?

  Being informed about a government's external policies
  - knowing the interests and concerns that drive policies
  - Knowing the outcomes and consequences of past foreign policy decisions and actions 
  
  The exercise of judgement and common sense in assessing the best practical means and courses of action available for carrying out foreign policy

• Comparative approach to foreign policy

  Inspired by behaviourism --> build systematic theories and explanations of foreign policy process in general

• Rational Actor Model (RAM) of foreign policy

  Decision-makers implement rational policies that maximise gains at the minimum cost 
  (based on the assumption that actors are rational and have the necessary information to make informed choices)

• Bureaucratic structures and processes approach to foreign policy

  The organisational context of decision-making: conditioned by the demands of the bureaucratic settings in which decisions are made

• Strength of bureaucratic structures and processes approach to foreign policy

  Empiricism: detailed attention to the way policies are carried out 
  Seeks to find out what happened and why it did

• Cognitive processes and psychology approach to foreign policy

  - Focused on the individual decision-maker 
  - Attention to the psychological aspects of decision-making  (eg. Perceptions of actors)
  - Limits of human cognition, rejects RAM

• Multilevel and multidimensional approach to foreign policy

  - There will never be an all-encompassing theory of foreign policy
  - Studies of balance of power behaviour and of deterrence and security dilemmas

• Social constructivist approach to foreign policy

  Identity, rooted in ideas and discourse, is the basis for a definition of interests and thus lies behind any foreign policy