Foreign Policy: Approaches, Levels Of Analysis, Dimensions

This paper provides an overview of key issues related to foreign policy and foreign policy theories in the wider context of political science. Discussing the origins and development of foreign policy analysis (FPA), as well as scholarly work produced over time, it argues that today FPA encompasses a variety of theoretical approaches, models and tools. These share the understanding that foreign policy outputs cannot be fully explained if analysis is confined to the systemic level. Furthermore, this paper conceptualizes foreign policy by comparing it to other types of policy. Although during the Cold War period foreign policy was equated with foreign security policy, in today’s world, security policy is only one dimension. Foreign policy’s scope has expanded to cover other issues such as trade, human rights and the environment. The growing number of domestic, international and transnational issues, stakeholders and inputs into the policy making process have made the formation and conduct of a coherent foreign policy increasingly challenging