Foreign Policy and the Implementation Approach

In a vastly complex and highly volatile international environment, academic and strategic analysis of foreign relations is becoming increasingly more meaningful, and necessary. The discipline of foreign policy analysis is a diverse study where there are numerous theories and methodologies available to the world's top scholars and policy makers. When considering international relations theory, it is important to take into account varying approaches û their individual requirements as well as how they differ from one another in order to gain a more complete understanding. An Implementation approach to foreign policy analysis differs greatly from other predominant veins of thought. In order to gain an appreciation for the unique approach that implementation analysis embraces, however, it is necessary to examine what it is not û that is, to first scrutinize the mainstream theories that have heretofore dominated foreign policy analysis. Of the many theories applied to the study of International Relations, three have emerged as the preeminent strategies for evaluating, structuring, and understanding foreign policy: Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism.

By far, the most commonly accepted and most widely used theory for foreign policy analysis is realism (Taliaferro 128). By definition, realism assumes the international realm is anarchic and consists of independent political units called states. State

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through representative institutions that define state preferences. The third assumption of liberalism is that "the configuration of state preferences determines state behavior" (Morasvcsik http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu). A critical theoretical link between varying state preferences and varying interstate behavior is provided by the concept of policy interdependence. Policy interdependence is the set of costs and benefits created for foreign societies when dominant social groups in a society seek to realize their preferences in the international realm, or perhaps better stated as the pattern of international policy resulting from the pursuit of domestic and international goals (Morasvcsik http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu). According to Morasvcsik (http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu), "liberal theory assumes that the configuration of interdependent preferences imposes a binding constraint on state behavior." In fact, states require a "purpose" û an understanding of a perceived underlying stake in a particular matter û in order to provoke conflict, cooperation, or take any other significant foreign policy action. In the liberal tradition, it is the precise nature of those purposes that are the primary determinant of state polic
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Implementation Analysis, Princeton University, Liberalism Constructivism, According Morasvcsik, Republican Liberalism, Policy Analysis, Weber Reus-Smith, Common Constructivists, War Reus-Smith, Offensive Realists, foreign policy, morasvcsik http//globetrotterberkeleyedu, accessed 2004, available accessed, online available, available accessed 2004, international relations, online available accessed, foreign policy analysis, policy analysis, implementation analysis, accessed 2004 18, mearsheimer http//globetrotterberkeleyedu, reus-smith http//rspasanueduau, 2004 18 october,
Approximate Word count = 3119
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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