INTERNATIONAL ATATRK ALATOO UNIVERSITY

Department of International Relations

ACTORS, STRUCTURES, AND

FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS

Subject:
Lecturer:
Student:

Foreign Policy Analysis

Ibrahim Koncak
Seitek Moldokasymov

Actors: Heads of state, heads of

government, foreign ministers or secretaries
of state, politburos, parliaments,
parliamentary committees, political parties,
and so forth.
Structures: political, cultural, psychological,
economic, national, regional, global,
technological, ideational, cognitive,
normative.

Historical Background of FP

Realism(H. Morgentau)
Behaviouralism
Neorealism
Neoclassical Realism
Explanandum(object of analysis) and
Explanans(explanatory facts)

Explanandum and
Explanans

The first is characterized by a focus on

decision-making processes in a broad
sense while the second makes a clear
distinction between such processes and
policy, defined more narrowly as a
choice of action in the pursuit of a goal,
or a set of goals, often characterized as
an undertaking

The role of actors and structures

in process approaches to FP

The explanandum of FPA includes the

process and resultants of human
decision making with reference to or
having known consequences for foreign
entities.
The explanans of FPA are those factors
that influence foreign policy decisionmaking and foreign policy decisionmakers.
Valerie Hudson(2005)

States are not conceived as unitary actors

but rather as an institutional structure within
which, and on behalf of which, individual
decision makers act.

The role of actors and structures

in policy approaches to FP

FP is the discrete purposeful action that

results from the political level decision of an
individual or group of individuals and its not
the decision, but a product of the decision
Charles Hermann(1978)

Graham Allisons Essence of Decision:

Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis(1971)

Approaches based on structural

perspective

Realism(Aggressive and Defensive

Neoclassical realism
Neoliberal institutionalism
Social constructivism

Approaches from an actor-based

perspective

Cognitive and psychological approaches

Bureaucratic politics approach
New liberalism
Interpretative actor perspective

Thank you for attention!