Chapter Three

Foreign Policy Decision Making

 The Modern State System
• state sovereignty: the state has supreme
authority over internal affairs; legal equality
with other states
• state: legal entity with permanent population,
well-defined territory, and a government
• nation: collection of people who perceive
common ties based on ethnic, linguistic,
and/or cultural factors
Figure 3.1: The Major Sources of States’
Foreign Policy Decisions:
Influences at Three Levels
 Geopolitics

• geopolitics: the interaction of geography

(location, terrain, resources) with world
politics; study of influence of geography on
foreign and military policy
• states’ attributes: size, location, wealth,
domestic political factors
• imperialism
Map 3.1: Geographic Influences on
Foreign Policy
 Foreign Policy Determinants

• geopolitical position
• military capabilities
• economic conditions
• type of government
– constitutional democracy
– autocratic
 Type of Government
• democratic peace: “Democracies don’t attack
each other.” --Bill Clinton
• end of history: liberal democracies with
market economies are the only workable
options for modern societies
• associated with the neoliberal approach to
using international organizations to promote
peace
 Map 3.2: The Map of Freedom: The
Location of Democratically Governed
Countries in 2004
Policy Making as Rational Choice

1. problem recognition and definition

2. goal selection
3. identification of alternatives
4. choice
• associated with realist/state as unitary actor
• 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
• 1999 Clinton Kosovo intervention
 Impediments to Rational Choice
• bounded rationality
• cognitive dissonance
• policy makers’ policy agendas
• satisficing
• prospect theory
• two-level games
• muddling through
• constructivism
 Bureaucratic Politics
• bureaucracies: government agencies, regulatory
commissions, departments
• factors bureaucratic efficiency/rationality:
– multiple advocacy
– bureaucratic politics model
– policy networks/caucuses
– standard operating procedures
– groupthink
Table 3.1: Foreign Policy Decision
Making in Theory and Practice
 The Role of Leaders

• history-making individual model

– Nixon Doctrine/Reagan Doctrine/Clinton
Doctrine/Bush Doctrine
• procedural rationality: perfect information
and careful weighing of all options
• instrumental rationality: comparing all
options and selecting the best one
Factors Affecting Leadership Capacity

• personality
• degree of control over foreign policy
• sense of political efficacy
• amount of available information
• ability to deal with crises
• “great person” versus zeitgeist debate
 Discussion
• What factors explain why George W. Bush did not
take action when given intelligence warnings of
impending terrorist attacks in the weeks prior to
September 11, 2001?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
history-making individuals model? Who qualifies
as a history-making individual?
• What factors explain why bureaucracies do not
always produce the best options?
 Discussion, continued

• What are some contemporary examples of

the importance of geopolitics?
• How do the concepts of this chapter explain
the conflict between the George W. Bush
administration and Iraq in 2003?
• In what ways does the individual level of
analysis affect foreign policy making?