Foreign policy

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J. K. Paasikivi, the President of Finland, was remembered as a main architect of Finland's foreign policy with the Soviet Union after the Second World War. From left to right: President Paasikivi and Soviet head of state Kliment Voroshilov in Moscow. Paasikivi ja Voroshilov.jpg
J. K. Paasikivi, the President of Finland, was remembered as a main architect of Finland's foreign policy with the Soviet Union after the Second World War. From left to right: President Paasikivi and Soviet head of state Kliment Voroshilov in Moscow.
The Farnesina in Rome, seat of the Italian Ministry of foreign affairs Palazzo della Farnesina.jpg
The Farnesina in Rome, seat of the Italian Ministry of foreign affairs
Meeting between the prime ministers of Spain and Poland (Jaroslaw Kaczynski), in 2007 Zapatero in Poland (556095467).jpg
Meeting between the prime ministers of Spain and Poland (Jarosław Kaczyński), in 2007

Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, including defense and security, economic benefits, and humanitarian assistance. The formulation of foreign policy is influenced by various factors such as domestic considerations, the behavior of other states, and geopolitical strategies. Historically, the practice of foreign policy has evolved from managing short-term crises to addressing long-term international relations, with diplomatic corps playing a crucial role in its development.

Contents

The objectives of foreign policy are diverse and interconnected, contributing to a comprehensive approach for each state. Defense and security are often primary goals, [2] with states forming military alliances and employing soft power to combat threats. Economic interests, including trade agreements and foreign aid, are central to a country's role in the global economy. Additionally, many states have developed humanitarian programs based on the responsibility to protect, supporting less powerful countries through various forms of assistance. The study of foreign policy examines the reasons and methods behind state interactions, with think tanks and academic institutions providing research and analysis to inform policy decisions.

History

The idea of long-term management of relationships followed the development of professional diplomatic corps that managed diplomacy.

In the 18th century, due to extreme turbulence in European diplomacy and ongoing conflicts, the practice of diplomacy was often fragmented by the necessity to deal with isolated issues, termed "affairs". Therefore, while domestic management of such issues was termed civil affairs (peasant riots, treasury shortfalls, and court intrigues), the term foreign affairs was applied to the management of temporary issues outside the sovereign realm. This term remained in widespread use in the English-speaking states into the 20th century, and remains the name of departments in several states that manage foreign relations. Although originally intended to describe short term management of a specific concern, these departments now manage all day-to-day and long-term international relations among states.[ citation needed ]

Think tanks are occasionally employed by government foreign relations organizations to provide research and advocacy in the development of foreign policy proposals, alternatives to existing policy, or to provide analytical assessments of evolving relationships.

Objectives

Several objectives may motivate a government's foreign policy. Foreign policy may be directed for defense and security, for economic benefit, or to provide assistance to states that need it. All foreign policy objectives are interconnected and contribute to a single, comprehensive foreign policy for each state. Unlike domestic policy, foreign policy issues often arise suddenly in response to developments and major events in foreign countries. [3]

Defense

Foreign policy is often directed for the purpose of ensuring national security. [4] Governments forming military alliances with foreign states in order to deter and show stronger resistance to attack. [5] Foreign policy also focuses on combating adversarial states through soft power, international isolation, or war.

In the 21st century, defensive foreign policy has expanded to address the threat of global terrorism. [6] [7] [8]

Economic

Foreign policy is central for a country's role within the world economy and international trade. Economic foreign policy issues may include the establishment of trade agreements, the distribution of foreign aid, and the management of imports and exports.

Internationalist

Many states have developed humanitarian programs under the concept of the responsibility to protect. Proponents of liberal internationalism believe that it is the duty of stronger and more well-off countries to assist and support less powerful countries. This idea is often associated with the idealist school of thought. Liberal internationalist support can take the form of defensive or economic support. [9]

Influences

Power and National capabilities

Superpowers are able to project power and exercise their influence across the world, while great powers and middle powers have moderate influence in global affairs.

Small powers have less ability to exercise influence unilaterally, as they have fewer economic and military resources to leverage. As a result, they are more likely to support international and multilateral organizations. The diplomatic bureaucracies of smaller states are also smaller, which limits their capacity to engage in complex diplomacy. Smaller states may seek to ally themselves with larger countries for economic and defensive benefits, or they may avoid involvement in international disputes so as to remain on friendly terms with all countries. [10]

Form of government

The political institutions and forms of government play a role in a country's foreign policy. In a democracy, public opinion and the methods of political representation both affect a country's foreign policy. [11] Democratic countries are also believed to be less likely to resort to military conflict with one another. [12] Autocratic states are less likely to use legalism in their foreign policies. [13] Under a dictatorship, a state's foreign policy may depend heavily on the preferences of the dictator. [14] Dictators that interfere significantly with their foreign policy apparatus may be less predictable and more likely to make foreign policy blunders. [15]

Study

The study of foreign policy considers why and how states interact with one another and maintain relations. Several schools of thought exist in the study of foreign policy, including the rational actor model based on rational choice theory, the government bargaining model that posits the foreign policy apparatus as several competing interests, and the organizational process model that posits the foreign policy apparatus as interlinked bureaucracies that each play their own role. [16]

Think tanks exist that study foreign policy specifically, including the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States and the Chatham House in the United Kingdom.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign policy of the United States</span> National foreign policy of the United States

The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the Foreign Policy Agenda of the Department of State, are "to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community". Liberalism has been a key component of US foreign policy since its independence from Britain. Since the end of World War II, the United States has had a grand strategy which has been characterized as being oriented around primacy, "deep engagement", and/or liberal hegemony. This strategy entails that the United States maintains military predominance; builds and maintains an extensive network of allies ; integrates other states into US-designed international institutions ; and limits the spread of nuclear weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council</span> Multilateral forum of NATO states

The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) is a post–Cold War, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) institution. The EAPC is a multilateral forum created to improve relations between NATO and non-NATO countries in Europe and Central Asia. States meet to cooperate and discuss political and security issues. It was formed on 29 May 1997 at a Ministers’ meeting held in Sintra, Portugal, as the successor to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which was created in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alliance</span> Coalition made between two or more parties to secure common interests

An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called allies. Alliances form in many settings, including political alliances, military alliances, and business alliances. When the term is used in the context of war or armed struggle, such associations may also be called allied powers, especially when discussing World War I or World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International relations</span> Study of relationships between two or more states

International relations (IR), are the interactions among sovereign states. The scientific study of those interactions is also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns all activities among states—such as war, diplomacy, trade, and foreign policy—as well as relations with and among other international actors, such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), international legal bodies, and multinational corporations (MNCs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common Foreign and Security Policy</span> Organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union

The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union (EU) for mainly security and defence diplomacy and actions. CFSP deals only with a specific part of the EU's external relations, which domains include mainly Trade and Commercial Policy and other areas such as funding to third countries, etc. Decisions require unanimity among member states in the Council of the European Union, but once agreed, certain aspects can be further decided by qualified majority voting. Foreign policy is chaired and represented by the EU's High Representative, currently Josep Borrell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic peace theory</span> International relations theory

Proponents of democratic peace theory argue that both electoral and republican forms of democracy are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. Different advocates of this theory suggest that several factors are responsible for motivating peace between democratic states. Individual theorists maintain "monadic" forms of this theory ; "dyadic" forms of this theory ; and "systemic" forms of this theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle power</span> Type of state

A middle power is a state that is not a superpower or a great power, but still exerts influence and plays a significant role in international relations. These countries often possess certain capabilities, such as strong economies, advanced technologies, and diplomatic influence, that allow them to have a voice in global affairs. Middle powers are typically seen as bridge-builders between larger powers, using their diplomatic skills to mediate conflicts and promote cooperation on international issues.

Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When states recognize one another as sovereign states and agree to diplomatic relations, they create a bilateral relationship. States with bilateral ties will exchange diplomatic agents such as ambassadors to facilitate dialogues and cooperations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insurgency</span> Revolt or uprising by irregular forces

An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well-equipped, regular military force state adversary. Due to this asymmetry, insurgents avoid large-scale direct battles, opting instead to blend in with the civilian population where they gradually expand territorial control and military forces. Insurgency frequently hinges on control of and collaboration with local populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interventionism (politics)</span> Interference by one country in the affairs of another

Interventionism, in international politics, is the interference of a state or group of states into the domestic affairs of another state for the purposes of coercing that state to do something or refrain from doing something. The intervention can be conducted through military force or economic coercion. A different term, economic interventionism, refers to government interventions into markets at home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign policy of Japan</span> International relations of the East Asian country

Japan is a middle power and a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations, the OECD, and the Group of Seven. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that rank as one of the world's strongest militaries. After World War II, Japan experienced record growth in an economic miracle, becoming the second-largest economy in the world by 1990. As of 2021, the country's economy is the third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by PPP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ikenberry</span> American political scientist (born 1954)

Gilford John Ikenberry is a theorist of international relations and United States foreign policy, and the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is known for his work on liberal International Relations theory, such as the books After Victory (2001) and Liberal Leviathan (2011). He has been described as "the world's leading scholar of the liberal international order."

Thomas Risse is a Berlin-based international relations scholar. He currently acts as chair of the Center for Transnational Relations, Foreign and Security Policy at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science of Freie Universität Berlin. Furthermore, he has several engagements in German and international research networks, and heads the PhD program of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

Liberalism is a school of thought within international relations theory which revolves around three interrelated principles:

The People's Republic of China emerged as a great power and one of the three big players in the tri-polar geopolitics (PRC-US-USSR) during the Cold War, after the Korean War in 1950-1953 and the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, with its status as a recognized nuclear weapons state in 1960s. Currently, China has one of the world's largest populations, second largest GDP (nominal) and the largest economy in the world by PPP.

In international relations, migration diplomacy is 'the use of diplomatic tools, processes, and procedures to manage cross-border population mobility,' including 'both the strategic use of migration flows as a means to obtain other aims, and the use of diplomatic methods to achieve goals related to migration.' Migration has come to constitute an increasingly-important area of states' engagement with one another, with bilateral multilateral strategies including the promotion or discouragement of bilateral migratory flows; agreements on preferential treatment to certain foreign nationals; the initiation of guest-worker programmes or other short-term labor migration schemes; the deportation of foreign nationals; and so on.

Energy diplomacy is a form of diplomacy, and a subfield of international relations. It is closely related to its principal, foreign policy, and to overall national security, specifically energy security. Energy diplomacy began in the first half of the twentieth century and emerged as a term during the second oil crisis as a means of describing OPEC's actions. It has since mainly focused on the securitization of energy supplies, primarily fossil fuels, but also nuclear energy and increasingly sustainable energy, on a country or bloc basis.

Rational choice is a prominent framework in international relations scholarship. Rational choice is not a substantive theory of international politics, but rather a methodological approach that focuses on certain types of social explanation for phenomena. In that sense, it is similar to constructivism, and differs from liberalism and realism, which are substantive theories of world politics. Rationalist analyses have been used to substantiate realist theories, as well as liberal theories of international relations.

In international relations, credibility is the perceived likelihood that a leader or a state follows through on threats and promises that have been made. Credibility is a key component of coercion, as well as the functioning of military alliances. Credibility is related to concepts such as reputation and resolve. Reputation for resolve may be a key component of credibility, but credibility is also highly context-dependent.

In international relations, coercion refers to the imposition of costs by a state on other states and non-state actors to prevent them from taking an action (deterrence) or to compel them to take an action (compellence). Coercion frequently takes the form of threats or the use of limited military force. It is commonly seen as analytically distinct from persuasion, brute force, or full-on war.

References

  1. ↑ Wilsford, David, ed. (1995). Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 347–352.
  2. ↑ Redd, Steven B.; Mintz, Alex (5 April 2013). "Policy Perspectives on National Security and Foreign Policy Decision Making". Policy Studies Journal. 41 (S1). doi:10.1111/psj.12010. ISSN   0190-292X. S2CID   154618621.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ↑ Wood, B. Dan; Peake, Jeffrey S. (1998). "The Dynamics of Foreign Policy Agenda Setting". American Political Science Review . 92 (1): 173–184. doi:10.2307/2585936. JSTOR   2585936. S2CID   154427295.
  4. ↑ Redd, Steven B.; Mintz, Alex (5 April 2013). "Policy Perspectives on National Security and Foreign Policy Decision Making". Policy Studies Journal. 41 (S1). doi:10.1111/psj.12010. ISSN   0190-292X. S2CID   154618621.
  5. ↑ Leeds, Brett Ashley (1 July 2003). "Do Alliances Deter Aggression? The Influence of Military Alliances on the Initiation of Militarized Interstate Disputes". American Journal of Political Science . 47 (3): 427–439. doi:10.1111/1540-5907.00031. ISSN   1540-5907.
  6. ↑ Lai, Brian (2017). Terrorism and Foreign Policy. Oxford University Press.
  7. ↑ Savun, Burcu; Phillips, Brian J. (2009). "Democracy, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism". Journal of Conflict Resolution . 53 (6): 878–904. doi:10.1177/0022002709342978. S2CID   154846148.
  8. ↑ Silke, Andrew (2003). "Retaliating Against Terrorism". Terrorists, Victims and Society: Psychological Perspectives on Terrorism and its Consequences. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 215–232.
  9. ↑ Orford, Anne (2013). "Moral Internationalism and the Responsibility to Protect". European Journal of International Law . 24: 83–108. doi:10.1093/ejil/chs092.
  10. ↑ Steinsson, Sverrir; Thorhallsson, Baldur (2017). "Small State Foreign Policy". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford University Press.
  11. ↑ Risse-Kappen, Thomas (1991). "Public Opinion, Domestic Structure, and Foreign Policy in Liberal Democracies". World Politics . 43 (4): 479–512. doi:10.2307/2010534. JSTOR   2010534. S2CID   153936601.
  12. ↑ Hegre, Håvard (2014). "Democracy and armed conflict". Journal of Peace Research . 51 (2): 159–172. doi: 10.1177/0022343313512852 . ISSN   0022-3433. S2CID   146428562.
  13. ↑ Erdmann, Gero; Bank, André; Hoffmann, Bert; Richter, Thomas (2013). International Cooperation of Authoritarian Regimes: Toward a Conceptual Framework. German Institute for Global and Area Studies.
  14. ↑ Kneuer, Marianne (2017). "Autocratic Regimes and Foreign Policy". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Foreign Policy Analysis. Oxford University Press.
  15. ↑ Frantz, Erica; Ezrow, Natasha M. (2009). "'Yes Men' and the Likelihood of Foreign Policy Mistakes Across Dictatorships". APSA 2009 Toronto Meeting Paper. APSA.
  16. ↑ Graham T. Allison (1969) "Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis." The American Political Science Review , Vol. 63, No. 3 (Sep. 1969), pp. 689–718

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