The fundamental assumption in the international arena is that the state as a primary actor of the world is equipped with resources and thus, is willing and able to make rational decisions. While, the inclination towards the most rationale choice is obvious, the decision of choice making doesn’t stop there. As a matter of fact, at many times, it doesn’t start there as well. There are a lot of factors that influence the foreign policy decision making process. Primarily, these factors can broadly be divided into three distinct categories. First, the individual level analysis that consists of the variables inherent and distinct to the decision maker. Secondly, the state level analysis includes the domestic politics and competitors, the media, public perception, the bureaucracies and various other interest groups that shape those decisions. And finally, the system and the framework in which a decision maker operates also plays a significant role into the decision process of foreign policy making.
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Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making presents a decision making approach to foreign policy analysis. This approach focuses on the decision process, dynamics, and outcome, highlighting the role of psychological factors in foreign policy decision making. The book includes a wealth of extended real-world case studies and examples that are woven into the text. The cases and examples, which are written in an accessible style, include decisions made by leaders of the United States, Israel, New Zealand, Cuba, Iceland, United Kingdom, and others. In addition to coverage of the rational model of decision making, levels of analysis of foreign policy decision making, and types of decisions, the book includes extensive material on alternatives to the rational choice model, the marketing and framing of decisions, cognitive biases and errors, and domestic, cultural, and international influences on decision making in international affairs. Existing textbooks do not present such an approach to foreign policy decision making, international relations, American foreign policy, and comparative foreign policy.
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Process of decision-making in foreign policy depends on different factors. Through considering factors of decision-making in foreign policy, national leaders use a set of rules to apply to different situations when they deal with international affairs. There are two approaches that influence process of decision-making. The first one is external factors that limit the choices of states regardless of their political system, history and culture. In other words external factors refer to systemic pressures of international relations that affect behavior of all states in process of foreign policy decision-making. The second one is internal factors that refer to various viewpoints and set of expectations in domestic environment of the states. In other words, despite to the same systemic pressures, states behave differently because their internal sources such as different political systems, cultures, and leaders influence their reactions to systemic pressures. After explaining meanings of foreign policy and decision-making, this article tends to review the external and internal factors of decision-making and explain how they influence process of foreign policy.
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