A level of analysis is a level that you study world politics at. Any analytical model – offer promise of reliable prediction

There are four levels of analysis. 

Individual level- at this level you are looking at the interactions between individuals (micro level analysis) For ex: analysis of individual’s speeches or biographies to understand their decision making.

Societal/Domestic level: looking at domestic issues to analyze state’s behavior

State level -looking at the interactions between states as actors. For ex: study of relations between Germany and France

Systemic level - looking at the world as a whole (macro level analysis) total picture of international relations For ex: analysis of global relations and issues (UN, NATO). 

Kenneth Waltz “Man, State, and War” (1950s)

How war and peace are explained by three images (individual, state, systemic levels)

David Singer ‘The Level of Analysis Problem in International Relations’ (1961)

Discuss only state and system levels of analysis

Analyzing Foreign Policy: Actors, Structures, and Foreign Policy

Study of the role of actors and structure in foreign policy

What is to be explained? How foreign policy explained?

Foreign policy: number of actors & structures, complex internal and international environment

Collation of actors or groups both inside and outside of state boundaries

Actor and structure: FP making is a complex process of interaction between many actors, differentially embedded in a wide range of different structures

Number of actors (both in internal and international) involve in FP decision making, there are number of structure both in internal and international divide affects these actors

Who are the most important actors?Head of state, parliaments, foreign

ministers…-decision makers democratically elected or not-acting internationally in behalf of the polities they represents

Other actors: civil servants and experts, lobbying forms, think tanks, media, research institutes

Domestically based actors have relations with their counterparts in other countries or relations with various IGO’s and NGO’s

Both domestic and international

Structural factors and its affects the making foreign policyStructure: ‘the sets of factors which make

up the multiple environments in which actors operate

Realism and FP: power and national interest provide explanation for the external behaviors of states

Neorealsim: structure of international system explains state behaviors, international structure determine behavior of states

Explanandum and Explanans in analyzing foreign policyExplanandum (object of analysis, which is to

be explained, dependent variables)

Explanans (explanatory factors, which does explaining , independent variables)

different explananda in FPA: decision making process and decision making policy (set of goals)

role of actors and structure in process approach to FPFP process: examining not single decision,

sequences of decision and strategies of decision making

Process needed to be examined and explained

Object of analysis (explanandum): what foreign policy decision makers are thinking or doing?

Process-object of analysis and role of actor and structure: function that state play in decision making

State institutional structure which individual decision makers act

Actors are individual, decision makers acting on behalf of the state

Role of actors and structure in the explanation of FPDM

But decision making process of actors and structure are examined one level at a time

FP decision making performed by human beings

role of actors and structure in ‘policy’ approaches to FPFocuses on choice of specific policies rather

than decision making processPolicies are result of processesexplannadum: purposeful actions result from

policies of individuals (actors)Purposive nature of foreign policy actions,

role of state boundariesParticular government-set of actionsexplanandum: policy undertakings not the

behavior of any particular entity

Graham Aliisions multiple lessons to explain multiple decision making (Cuban Missile Crisis essence of decision making, 1971)

Actor and structure based explanations-levels of analysis and different perspectives

Approached Based on Structural PerspectiveRealism: aggressive and defensive forms of

neo-realismOffensives structure of international

system is based on conflict and aggression, rational states pursue offensive strategies for security (J. Mearsheimer)

Role played by the distribution of power in the international system

Neoclassical realist: state foreign policy is formed by its place in the international system by its material power capabilities, both domestic and systemic variables (different factors from both levels combine foreign policy of states)

Structural orientation for the notion of state power which is defined in terms of international structure or combination of domestic and power resources and international structure

Neoliberal institutionalism: Alternative approach to Realism in FPA

Assumes that states are primary actors in the anarchic international system

Neorealsim & neoliberalism: choice of state on the part of state acting rationally and strategically in

Uncertainty and security positively affected by creation of regimes which provides common rule for international cooperation in some degree

international regimes as “sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations.”(Cooperation under Anarchy, Robert Axelrod& Robert Keohane, 1985

Neoliberal institutions believe institutions do matter; they make difference in behavior of states and in nature of international politics

states purpose and defend their objectives by international institutions (K. J. Holsti)

Social Constructivism: Reality is socially constructed in the form of social rules

Normative and ideational form of social structure

Shared ideas about state behaviors had impact on nature and functioning of world politics

Identity: socially constructed of the state and its interest: identities provide a frame of reference from which political leaders initiate, maintain, and structure their relationship with other states

Structural factors causes particular state behavior

Approaches from an actor-based perspectiveCognitive and psychological approaches:

cognitive and psychological characteristics of individuals decision makers as basis of structural explanation of FP (explaining given policy choices)

Individual beliefs and the way of process information , personality, cognition dictates structural constraints

Bureaucratic politics approach: governmental approach to the analysis of FP

Decisions are result of power bargaining between government agencies rather than individuals (secretary of defence vs. secretary of state)

FP can be explained in terms of bureaucracies infighting

Neoliberals: Societal actors in formation of foreign policies of states

Interpretative actor perspective: Inter-subjective world of meaning (social constructivism as interpretative approach)

Interpret individual’s action in terms of social rule and collective meaning

Explanation of foreign policy is based on thinking and actions of individual decision makers (try to understand decision makers by reconstructing their reasons)

Foreign policy of states depends on how individuals with power perceive and analyze situations.

Multiple structure and actors in real world in which FP is made,

Agency-Structure ProblemScholars focusing on explaining policies

either views actor as cause of policy actions, or give structures this role

Human agents and social structures are interrelated entities and cannot account one without invoking the other, none of the discussed issues cause this problem because each of them favor either actors or structures in their explanations and treat them separately on different levels of analysis

Master-slave relationship: one actor constitutes the other

Relationship that constitutes them as certain types of social actors are what causes them to behave in certain ways

Agent structure relationship: micro-macro levels of analysis

Theory and Agency Structure-SummaryNeo-realism: Structure determines

behaviourLiberalism/Pluralism: Agency mattersConstructivism: link between agency and

structure, mutually determined