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Early Approaches to the Study of Foreign Policy

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Professionalization of Foreign Policy

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Abstract

Part I of the book is developed into the historiography of foreign policy analysis in this chapter and Chapter 2, with a test of theories in Chapter 3. This chapter begins with a summary of the literature on foreign policy analysis up to World War II, starting with Aristotle, Plato, and Thucydides. Early approaches tended to contract between rational and emotional decisions and decision-makers. However, Augustine believed that humans inevitably make mistakes. Structural theory of Locke and Madison believed that a system of checks and balances would force decision-makers to be more rational, while perfectibility theories from Thomas Aquinas to Jeremy Bentham argued that efforts at rationality could be constructed. Bentham in particular imagined how options could be assessed in terms of benefits. Then came the nineteenth century, when international law began development as well as the notion of power balancing; the Industrial Revolution presented a challenge to social structure. The reaction to World War I was to stress the need for public input into foreign policy decision-making.

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  1. Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Michael Haas

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Haas, M. (2023). Early Approaches to the Study of Foreign Policy. In: Professionalization of Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37152-3_1

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