Foreign policy can be understood as the sum of official external relations undertaken by a set of state representatives and/or other high level diplomatic actors. The foreign policy decision making is mediated by a set of internal structures (e.g. citizens, opposition, bureaucrats, and/or Constitutional frameworks) as well as a set of external structures (e.g. the international system, international norms, treaties and/or organizations, global economics, third states etc.). The task of the foreign policy analysis is therefore to identify the material and ideational factors in the internal and external environment which affect foreign policy decision making and implementation and theorize about their relation.

This course will provide the student with the basic tools of foreign policy analysis and further insights into its application on different actors in the current international system, with a special focus on state actors.

Assessment

• Brief analytical work (mid-term evaluation): 35% of the grade

• Final essay: 60% of the grade (oral presentation, based on the draft version of the essay: 10% of the grade; written final version of the paper: 50% of the grade).

• Participation: 5% of the grade

Competences, learning outcomes and teaching activities (PDF)