1) A nation's foreign policy is determined by both domestic and international factors. Domestically, factors include a country's culture, history, geography, economic strength, and political system. 2) Internationally, the structure of the international system, international laws and organizations, military alliances, and relative military powers all influence a country's foreign policy choices. 3) A country's foreign policy consists of defining its national interests and desired outcomes, and determining strategies and resources to pursue these interests in interactions with other states.

1. Foreign Policy
Determinants
KHAN ZEB

2. • Nation state system
• WW1
• WW2
• International bodies/organization
• Decolonialization- liberation from colonial rule – new states emerged
• Globalization- widening, deepening and speeding up of global
interconnectedness.
• formation of ‘foreign policies’. With the aim of determining and identifying the
decisions, strategies, and ends of interaction of a state with another

3. • A state without a foreign policy, has been compared to a ship in
the deep sea without any knowledge of directions.
• Thus, foreign policy leads a state in fulfilling its national interests
and acquiring rightful place among comity of nations.
• Foreign policy is not only to change, but also continuation of
the behaviour at different times

4. • foreign policy consisting of three parts: the ‘end’, the ‘ways’ and
the ‘means’.
• The end consists a vision of a desired outcome or set of interests
in interacting with another state/actor;
• the ways, consists of the strategies and ideas (e.g. diplomatic
tactics, coercion), to pursue these desired interests;
and the means, consists of the available resources at a state’s
disposal
(e.g. economic, military).

5. DETERMINANTS
• Domestic and International determinants of foreign policies
varies from state and the political environment in which these
states exist. In some cases, international factors play a major
role, whereas in other cases, domestic determinants are more
important

6. External Determinants
• External factors that determine the foreign policy of a state are but not
limited to: the international system or power structure, international
law, international organizations, alliances, and military strength or arm
race.
• Big Middle and small power/states
• The impact of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the rise of
Communist Power in China in 1949, the rise of De Gaulle to power in
France and Hitler in Germany, and the emergence of new states in Asia
and Africa; brought about significant changes in the power structure
and that has impacted the foreign policy of many states

7. • Bi-polar system as witnessed during the Cold War
• Capitalist -USA
• Communist- Russia, China
• The demise of the Soviet Union and the advent of the unipolar
world
• Post 911 “either with us or against us”- war on terror

8. International law
• The existence of international law and international norms limits
the freedom to maneuver of states in the system. It is constituted
by interstate agreements and treaties and thus, does not entirely
favor every interest a state may have. It limits a state in one way
or another
• proponents of Realism, argue that international law
has little or no independent effect on foreign policy
• The US invasion of Iraq in 2003

9. • Liberal institutionalist
argues that international law can be profoundly significant. They
assert that when states sign a treaty or agreements, it allegedly
becomes costlier to take actions the law forbids and less costly to
pursue policies the law condones.
• Positivist view, international law is a set of rules that regulates
and constraints state behaviour. States are constrained to respect
international norms if they do not want to face sanctions and
avoid ‘naming and shaming’ by international activists.

10. • The Constructivist approach of international law in
foreign policy can illustrate the fact that it regulates and gives a
roadmap to state’s behaviour, enable them to enter in relationship
with each other (thereby limiting their actions); because they are
legally bind by customary law and they decide to have legally
binding
obligations through treaties
•

11. International organizations
• over 68,000 International Organizations (both active and inactive) in the
world
• United Nations (UN) and its affiliates, international financial institutions,
such as International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the World Bank, Amnesty International, Human rights org. Disarmament
org.
Realist - ‘bottom-up’ perspective;
liberal institutionalist – Top down perspective
• The European Union, ASEAN, African Union, OPEC, ECOWAS and several
others have been major players in the international system

12. Alliances
• Alliance formation is considered as a strategy that states use in the
formulation and implementation of their foreign policies
• Alliances in their dictum “are the results of agreements that both entail
some commitment and allow for increased foreign policy activity.”
• During 1945-90,
both the United States and USSR, recognized and used alliances as the
means for consolidating their respective positions. NATO & Warsaw pact

13. Military strategy/Arm race
• An arm race denotes the quantity or quality of instruments of
military and naval power by rival states in peacetime
• Atomic bomb
• Arm race
• Nonproliferation

14. Domestic determinants
• Culture and history
• Geography, size and population
• Economic development and natural resources
• Military capabilities
• Political system
• Personality and character of the leader
• Political parties and interest groups
• Press and public opinion
• Science and technology

15. • Without a properly formulated foreign policy, a state is
tended to lose its position and prestige in world affairs and will
eventually lead to a decline in achieving its national interest,
whereas
the opposite is true of countries with well formulated foreign
policies
• The linkage between international and domestic determinants has
long been a widely debated topic in the field of international
relations and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) in particular