Impact of the Political Context on Foreign Policy Decision‐Making

One of the most pressing concerns in the study of international relations today is to develop a systematic account of the impact of domestic politics on foreign policy. This paper argues that domestic politics frequently influences foreign policy through a process of decision‐making that grows out of the decision‐maker's awareness of the requirements for effective action in the political context. It is therefore necessary to develop a theory that can explain how the political context's characteristic features affect decision‐makers’ thinking. In attempting to combine insights culled from the literature on political decision‐making with psychological theories of decision‐making processes, this paper offers a first step toward such a theory.