Foreign policy models and the problem of dynamism

THE study of foreign policy has, until recently, lacked conceptual clarity. This has been primarily the result of the failure to delineate the boundaries of Foreign Policy as a concept. Consequently, many professed studies of foreign policy have, in fact, been concerned with surveying the bilateral or multilateral relations of one state with other states in the international system. However, in the last two decades there has been an increasing tendency towards more precise and orderly methods for analysing foreign policy in its theoretical and operational dimensions. This has led to a proliferation of theory-oriented studies concerned mainly with explaining foreign policy behaviour.