Hudson, "A Road Map"

Question 1

What are grounds of international relations?

Answer 1

“Understanding how humans perceive and react to the world around them, and how
humans shape and are shaped by those around them, is central to the inquiry of social
scientists, even those in IR”

Question 2

What are the 3 points separating Foreign Policy Decision and Foreign Policy Action?

Answer 2

1.A decision may never result in action

2. A decision may be taken to act in a way that does not reveal, and indeed, is possibly deigned to conceal, the true decision taken
3. Implementation issues routinely plague even the most important decisions to act, often leading to profound slippage between the direction of the decision taken and the direction of the action executed

Question 3

List the 6 FPA hallmarks pertaining to human psychology in decision-making

Answer 3

FPA hallmark 1: the view that the explanation of foreign policy decision-making is multifactorial

FPA hallmark 2: explanatory variables, from micro to macro, are of interest to the
analyst and affect decision-making

FPA hallmark 3: the presence of multi/interdisciplinary individuals

FPA hallmark 4: radically integrative theoretically

FPA hallmark 5: emphasis on agent-orientated theory

FPA hallmark 6: profoundly actor specific in orientation

Question 4

Why is FPA an important field to study in IR?
(4 points)

Answer 4

1. Theories at different levels of analysis can finally be integrated in a more
   meaningful fashion
2. The possibility of incorporating a more robust concept of agency
3. Move beyond description or postulation of natural law-like generalisations of state behaviour to a fuller and more satisfying explanation for state behaviour
4. A natural bridge from IR to other fields, such as Comparative Politics and public policy

Question 5

Who is the focus of Kenneth Waltz’s research and what theory does he adhere to?

Answer 5

Waltz believes states to be the archetypes in international politics, placing a great deal of focus on the distribution of power within said states’ to shape preferences and ideas

Waltz is a neorealist

Question 6

Who is the focus of Alexander Wendt’s research and what theory does he adhere to?

Answer 6

Wendt believes that ideas construct preferences and interests; essentially, the material world is what the ideal world makes it

Wendt is a social constructivist

Question 7

What is the FPA critique of both Waltz and Wendt’s perspectives?

Answer 7

FPA theorists believe that only human beings can have ideas and thus are the archetypal agents in international relations. An FPA critique would be that neither Waltz nor Wendt have an adequate conceptualisation of agency at all, in this context

Question 8

Why can group settings make the quality of decision-making deteriorate?

Answer 8

The motivation to maintain group consensus and personal acceptance by the group
can cause deterioration of decision-making quality

Question 9

What does Comparative Foreign Policy have to do with FPA theorising?

Answer 9

It is in CFP that we see most directly the legacy of scientism/behaviourism in FPA’s genealogy. CFP research aimed explicitly at integrated multilevel explanations

Question 10

List some CFP/FPA inconsistencies
(3 points)

Answer 10

1. “Many CFPers rejected the case study approach as unscientific and too much like the
   soft, anecdotal research of the ‘traditionalists’”
2. The question of quanti fication
3. Policy relevance

Question 11

What are the key points regarding the formation of the FPA’s distinctive theoretical commitments, formulated following the Cold War
(5 points)

Answer 11

1. A commitment to look below the nation-state level of analysis to actor-specifi c information
2. A commitment to build middle-range theory as the interface between actor-general theory and the complexity of the real world
3. A commitment to pursue multicasual explanation spanning multiple levels of
   analysis
4. A commitment to utilise theory and findings from across the spectrum of
   social science
5. A commitment to viewing the process of foreign policy decision-making as important as the output thereof