Academic discussion on the fundamentals of foreign policy often draws a debatable argument in International Relations research. Yet, the effort to unravel the core definition of foreign policy is limited and largely unobserved. Regardless of any foreign policy beliefs, understanding the fundamentals is crucial to make informed decisions related to international affairs. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the fundamentals of foreign policy in twofold namely; (1) Working on outlining the definition of foreign policy and (2) Factors that influence foreign policy decisions. By employing secondary data, the systematic review was conducted based on past literature with respect to foreign policy studies and premiership; extracted from reputable databases. The literature search was limited to English sources, published in Scopus, ScienceDirect, and indexed in Google Scholar from 1960 to 2020. Accordingly, five factors emerged from the review which revealed the significant influence of individual, position, government, society, and system in formulating foreign policy decisions. These factors are considered as drivers in the foreign policy landscape and evidently shaped the Malaysian principles in collaborating with international cooperation. Finally, this paper provides insights into the existing literature with a detailed definition of foreign policy and narrates the way foreign policy decisions have effects on Malaysian political affairs. A set of recommendations were proposed as a brief agenda for future research.

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Perbincangan akademik mengenai hubungan antarabangsa dan dasar luar sering mengundang pelbagai tafsiran dan kontroversi politik. Namun begitu, usaha untuk meningkatkan kefahaman terutamanya melalui perincian definisi topik-topik ini adalah terhad. Sehubungan itu, kajian ini memfokuskan kepada pengenalan konsep asas dalam hubungan antarabangsa dan dasar luar melalui dua cara iaitu; (1) membincangkan definisi dasar luar secara menyeluruh dan (2) pengaruh gaya kepimpinan perdana menteri terhadap dasar luar. Menggunakan data sekunder, tinjauan sistematik telah dijalankan berdasarkan kajian lepas yang di ekstrak daripada pangkalan data akademik dan diindeks oleh Google Scholar dari tahun 1960 hingga 2022. Berdasarkan keputusan analisis literatur, kajian ini mendapati gaya kepimpinan perdana menteri mempunyai pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap dasar luar di Malaysia. Secara khususnya, setiap perdana menteri mempunyai matlamat dan perancangan yang berbeza. Meskipun perkara ini membuka ruang perbahasan mengenai penggunaan kuasa secara tidak terkawal, Malaysia masih mengekalkan hubungan yang baik dengan negara-negara lain sehingga kini. Secara teorinya, hasil kajian ini telah berjaya memberikan gambaran keseluruhan mengenai konsep asas hubungan antarabangsa dan dasar luar di Malaysia terutamanya dengan membincangkan beberapa definisi daripada sarjana terdahulu dan pengaruh setiap perdana menteri terhadap dasar luar sejak tahun 1957 hingga kini.

Since the 2013 outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, the conflict has produced orgies of casualties and displacement of millions necessitating a series of mandates of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Yet, humanitarian crises and civilian protection challenges have not been reversed. To address these deficiencies, this article examined methods of the unarmed civilian peacekeeping as local peace formation and infrastructure involving the non-use of weapons for civilian protection as practiced by the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP). Adopting ethnographic strands of Critical Peace Studies and utilisation of participant observations in humanitarian accounts with the NP between 2015 and 2019, our in-depth qualitative fieldwork indicates a potentially effective approach to unarmed civilian protection in the country. Our findings illuminate the limited viability of the UN civilian appointed personnel, while making an argument for the compelling efficacy of unarmed civilian peacekeepers in which those affected by the conflict are themselves empowered in their physical protection, the study further recommends the integration of the NP strategies into the current state of peace operation disarray so the current self-fulfilling prophecy of failed peace in South Sudan can be overturned.