Foreign Policy Analysis

Question 1

What is the Rational Actor Model?

Answer 1

The Rational Actor Model

• State is unitary actor.
• State is rational and strategic actor (with rank-ordered and consistent preferences).
• Foreign policy making is the act of implementing the national interest.
• Example: Cuban Missile Crisis: US implements naval blockade because it is best suited means to reach goal (no missiles in Cuba) than doing nothing, diplomatic pressure, secret approach to Castro, invasion and surgical airstrike.

Question 2

What is the Organisational Process Model?

Answer 2

Organisational Process Model

• Draws on organisational theory, rather than rational choice.
• Organisations use templates and models to carry out tasks efficiently. Thus, organizations tend to follow routines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Organisations are parochial and self-interested.
• What is rational and efficient for state organisations may not be “rational” for the state.
• E.g. Cuban Missile Crisis: late assembly of intelligence pieces; major tensions during implementation of blockade (Anderson, waving the Manual of Navy Regulations: “Now, Mr. Secretary if you and your Deputy will go back to your office, the Navy will run the Blockade.”)

Question 3

What is the Bureaucratic Politics Model?

Answer 3

Bureaucratic Politics Model

• Adds political dimension to Organisational Process Model
• “Where you stand depends on where you sit”.
• Personal interests include prestige, status, budget increases, career advancement, re-election.
• Foreign Policy is result of outcome of bargaining among representatives of different bureaucratic interests.
• E.g. Cuban Missile Crisis: CIA reluctant to inform President of troubling material that he does not want to hear; President Kennedy after crisis: “An invasion would have been a mistake… But the military are mad. They wanted to do this. It’s lucky for us that we have McNamara over there.”

Question 4

What is Constructivist Foreign Policy Analysis?

Answer 4

• National interest socially constructed (important question: how is it constructed?)
• Identity (roles, identity-narrative) and identity-constituting norms make certain acts appear appropriate to actors and rule others out.
• Deeply held intersubjectivity (e.g. episteme, background knowledge, ideology, world view etc.) makes actors see particular dimensions of the social world and/or engage in certain performances but not others.
• Links between levels of analysis because unit of analysis is community (which may or may not be state bound)

Question 5

How can we link the International and the State Level of Analysis?

Answer 5

• J. David Singer: Levels of analysis cannot be linked
• Peter Gourevitch: State institutions and interests are shaped by international forces
• Robert Putnam: Two-level games where leader play games on two “boards”
• Rodney Bruce Hall: Collective identity and systematic change are interdependent