Summary and conclusion

This chapter has dealt with four issues concerning the nature of foreign policy initiative (FPI).
First, it has linked image of implementation with those of policy making development in chapter 3, and
shown how their assumptions condition the ways in which we assess implementation. Second, it has dealt
with question who implement? and in so doing has stressed the importance of agency in the
implementation of foreign policy. Third, it has illustrated the importance of instruments to the analysis of
foreign policy, by evaluating the ways in which instruments are chosen, combined and deployed. Finally,
it has examined the question of foreign policy outcomes, using criteria efficiency and effectiveness,
success and failure. Throughout, the chapter has emphasized the ways in which difference and variety are
central to foreign policies in the twenty-first century, and has also noted the ways in which constraints on
foreign policy actions are experienced in different sets of foreign policy makers.