Aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, this book covers the theory of foreign policy analysis. Beginning with an overview, it then tackles theory and research at multiple levels of analysis, ending with an examination of the areas in which the next generation of foreign policy analysts can make important contributions.

This exciting new book aims to re-invigorate the conversation between foreign policy analysis and international relations. It opens up the discussion, situating existing debates in foreign policy in relation to contemporary concerns in international relations, and provide a concise and accessible account of key areas in foreign policy analysis that are often ignored. Focusing on how the process of foreign policy decision making affects the conduct of states in the international system, and analysing the relationship between policy, agency and actors, the work examines: foreign policy and bureaucracies domestic sources of foreign policy foreign policy and the state foreign policy and globalization foreign policy and change. This work builds on and expands the theoretical canvas of foreign policy analysis, shaping its ongoing dialogue with international relations and offering an important introduction to the field. It is essential reading for all students of foreign policy and international relations.

This book's introduction to foreign policy analysis focuses on decision makers and decision making. Each chapter is organised around puzzles and questions to which undergraduates can relate. The book emphasizes the importance of individuals in foreign policy decision making, while also placing decision makers within their context.

This book presents the evolution of the field of foreign policy analysis and explains the theories that have structured research in this area over the last 50 years. It provides the essentials of emerging theoretical trends, data and methodological pitfalls and major case-studies and is designed to be a key entry point for graduate students, upper-level undergraduates and scholars into the discipline. The volume features an eclectic panorama of different conceptual, theoretical and methodological approaches to foreign political analysis, focusing on different models of analysis such as two-level game analysis, bureaucratic politics, strategic culture, cybernetics, poliheuristic analysis, cognitive mapping, gender studies, groupthink and the systemic sources of foreign policy. The authors also clarify conceptual notions such as doctrines, ideologies and national interest, through the lenses of foreign policy analysis.

Rethinking Foreign Policy Analysis presents the definitive treatment to integrate theories of foreign policy analysis and international relations--addressing the agent-centered, micro-political study of decisions by leaders and the structure-oriented macro political study of state interactions in an international system.

Through a broad-reaching collection of readings, this text illustrates the second generation scholarship in foreign policy analysis. It adopts a quantitative and positivist approach, using real-world examples and theoretical discussions to help bridge the theory and practice of foreign policy.

Henrik Larsen presents discourse analysis as an alternative approach to foreign policy analysis. Through an extensive empirical study of British and French policies towards Europe in the 1980s, he demonstrates the importance of political discourse in shaping foreign policy. The author discusses key theoretical problems within traditional belief system approaches and proposes an alternative one: political discourse analysis. The theory is illustrated through detailed analyses of British and French discourses on Europe, nation/state security and the nature of international relations.