6. Actors, structures, and foreign policy analysis

Abstract

This chapter examines how actors and structures make foreign policy an extremely complicated field of study and how, in view of this complexity, these actors and structures have been treated in the literature on foreign policy analysis. It first provides a historical background on the field of foreign policy before discussing the role of actors and structures in ‘process’ and ‘policy’ approaches to foreign policy. In particular, it describes approaches to foreign policy based on a structural perspective, namely: realism, neoliberal institutionalism, and social constructivism. It then considers evaluates approaches from an actor-based perspective: cognitive and psychological approaches, bureaucratic politics approach, new liberalism, and interpretative actor perspective. The chapter also looks at the agency–structure problem and asks whether an integrated framework is feasible before concluding with a recommendation of how to resolve the former in terms of a constructive answer to the latter.

Como compreender e estudar a decisão em política externa: reinterpretando os clássicos

“…Por outro lado, grande parte das atividades relacionadas com acontecimentos de política externa não são resumíveis a um sentido estrito e preciso de decisão (JONES, 1970b: 37;ROSENAU, 1980: 50-52). O processo de formulação em política externa, mais do que uma série de discretas e identificáveis decisões, caracteriza-se por um nexo contínuo de políticas e decisões (WALACE, 1977: 5-6 (CARLSNAES 1992;2012). É, portanto, a tentativa de explicação e ilustração deste processo que deve guiar a estratégia de investigação do analista de política externa.…”

Approaches to Turkish Foreign Policy: A Critical Realist Analysis

“…The material assumes importance only in a social context, which is itself defined idealistically in terms of social rules, shared knowledge and inter-subjective meanings. 48 Foreign policy is also a social construct according to constructivists 49 who emphasize the way in which identities and interests mutually constitute and effect foreign-policy behavior. In contrast to neo-realists, who see state identities as given and interests as determined by the structure of the system, constructivists see these identities as constructed and as the basis of a state's interests.…”

Presidentes frente a cancillerías: la formulación de la política exterior en Brasil y Chile entre 1990 y 2010

“…En el caso chileno se ha considerado el proceso de creación e incorporación a la Alianza del Pacífico y la estrategia comercial del país. Para estudiar estos procesos de formulación de política exterior, se utiliza el modelo de bureaucratic politics (Welch, 1992;Preston y 't Hart, 1999;Drezner, 2000;Halperin et al, 2006;Carlsnaes, 2012;Marsh, 2013), que permite analizar el comportamiento de los actores en el marco de las organizaciones burocráticas a las que pertenecen y las agendas y los roles que asumen en la interacción con otros actores durante la formulación de la política exterior.…”