Who or What Determines Foreign Policy?

Abstract

Where are the best explanations of foreign policy to be found? Over the course of the chapters in this book, we investigated numerous factors at various levels of analysis that each have the potential to affect foreign policy: leader personality and worldview; perceptions, problem representations, the use of analogies, and reasoning; the role of advisors, group decision making, and the impact of institutional arrangements; domestic audiences, national history, culture, and the state’s political institutions; capabilities, size, and geographic location. At this point, it is tempting to argue that they all matter. This is not wrong, because multi-causal explanations are often the most appropriate ones. However, it is also important to recognize that different causes sometimes explain slightly different things—such as decisions, behaviors, and outcomes—and require that we investigate phenomena at different levels of analysis—the individual, state, and international system.