POLI 2530

Foreign Policy is concerned with the way that individual states decide on their priorities and strategies in relation to the rest of the world. This course begins with a brief review of International Relations theories and their application to foreign policy. The main part of the course explores theories about what drives foreign policy decision-making: political systems, bureaucracy, culture, psychology, and leadership. The last part of the course looks at the instruments of foreign policy, with particular attention to the military, trade and investment, and foreign aid. All parts of the course feature a mix of abstract theory and specific, real-world examples.