Structure and Agency in Foreign Policy Analysis

1
Structure and Agency in Foreign Policy Analysis

• Week 8 Concepts and Approaches in Politics and
  International Relations

2
The Agent-Structure Debate

• What is the agent-structure debate?
• Structure the sets of factors which make up the
  multiple environments in which agents operate,
  and they shape the nature of choices, by setting
  limits to the possible but also, more profoundly,
  by determining the nature of the problems which
  offer there by shaping our very life-worlds.

3
The Agent-Structure Debate

• What is the agent-structure debate?
• Agency Agents are the entities capable of
  decisions and actions in any given context. They
  may be single individuals or collectives and they
  may be characterised by conscious intentions or
  by patterns of behaviour which at least in part
  do not result from deliberation.

4
Implications of the Agency-Structure Debate

• We can talk about the agent-structure debate in
  two different ways.
• One is the unit of analysis.
• Units help us divide the world while actors have
  independent will and exorcise decision-making.
• The other is modes of explanation.
• Foreign policy making is a complex process of
  interaction between many actors, differentially
  embedded in a wide range of different structures.
  Thus, a relationship between the two.

5
Theory and Agency-Structure

• Neo-realism Structure determines behaviour
• Liberalism/Pluralism Agency matters
• Constructivism link between agency and
  structure, mutually determined

6
FPA and Agency-Structure

• Where does FPA sit in this scheme?
• Between positivism and constructivism
• On one hand, we can rely on empirical knowledge
  to explain events and even make predictions at
  times.
• On the other hand, we conclude that there is a
  limit to how much we can generalise from this
  empirical data.

7
FPA and Agency-Structure

• Where does FPA sit in this scheme?
• Freewill and Rationality two views
• Choice is illusory given the power of historical
  forces on the other.
• While individuals do originate action, they are
  limited in their options by their preferences and
  environment (i.e. Structures)

8
Foreign policy and the State

• Agency-structure in the international system meet
  most usually at the level of the state.
• Thus, we need to have an idea what we mean by the
  state because this makes a difference as to where
  foreign policy starts and stops.
• Also, International politics is about how the
  state behaves at the international level and thus
  understanding how the state behaves at the
  domestic level is key to linking the domestic
  with the international.

9
Foreign policy and the State

• What is the role of the state in international
  politics?
• Issue of Sovereignty
• Foreign policy exists in the space created by
  states existence and by their lack of
  omnipotence.
• The role of the state is to mediate the impact of
  the external on the domestic and to find ways of
  projecting a particular set of concerns in a very
  intractable world. It depends on sovereignty not
  being extinguished where it already exists, but
  otherwise is more linked to the existence of a
  distinguishable set of domestic interests, which
  vary independently of the given of sovereign
  statehood.

10
Approaches to the State

• Two types of approaches to the state
• Outside-in states evolved as part of regional
  power politics
• Inside-out states are essentially the product of
  a social contract to engage in common cause
• No interpretation of the state which fails to
  bind the domestic and the international aspects
  together can be very convincing.

11
The State and IR

• The international system is still anarchical and
  thus states must retain armies to defend the
  state in a self-help system
• In a complicated international system, we need
  states to provide identity, direction and agency.
• The state offers protection of private space,
  that is the capacity to regulate or protect
  social behaviour and traditions.

12
Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy

• Inherent link between the domestic and
  international
• International determinants of foreign policy
• Domestic determinants of foreign policy
• Robert Putnam the logic of two-level of games
• Ex Trade negotiations

13
Questions about the State

• Should we restrict foreign policy to that only
  done by states or can other units have a foreign
  policy?
• Should foreign and defence policy be delegated
  almost wholly to a small elite, on the grounds
  that dealings with other states requires secrecy,
  continuity, experience and personal contacts? If
  so, what does say about democracy or popular
  sovereignty?
• Whose interests are served by a states foreign
  policy?

14
Expectation of Foreign Policy

• Whose interests are served by a states foreign
  policy?
• Protecting citizens abroad
• Projecting identity abroad
• Homeostasis or the maintenance of territorial
  integrity and social peace against external
  threats
• Advancing prosperity
• Making decisions on interventions abroad
• Negotiating a stable international order
• Protecting the global commons (Environmentalism,
  global security (broadly defined))