Foreign Policy Analysis and Realism

Abstract

Realists emphasize the importance of structural and systemic factors for foreign policy but differ in their views on the density of the international system, the typical foreign policy behaviour of states, the impact of domestic politics and individuals on foreign policy, and the relative weight of and interplay between material and ideational factors. They unpack the foreign policy challenges and opportunities following from the anarchic structure of the international system, explain how relative power matters for what states can and cannot do, and explore the mechanisms by which structural incentives are translated into foreign policy through decision-makers and domestic politics and discourses. The chapter provides a critical overview of realist approaches to foreign policy analysis (FPA) and discusses how one of these approaches, neoclassical realism, may be reconceptualized as a template for multi-factor and multi-level analysis benefitting from recent advances in FPA.