Individual
level analysis focuses on
people. People make decisions within
nation states and therefore people make foreign policy.
Classical realism is a state level theory that argues that all states
seek power.
However, it sees
the cause of all the power struggles and rivalries not as a function of the
nature of states, but as a function of the nature of the international
system.
States don’t just seek power and they don’t just fear other powerful
states, there are reasons that states seek power and there are reasons that
states fear other states.
Liberalism adds values into the equation. It is often called idealism. It is a state
level theory which argues that there is a lot of cooperation in the world, not
just rivalry.
Neo-liberals might focus on
the role of the United Nations or World Trade Organization in shaping the
foreign policy behavior of states.
Neo-liberals might look at the cold war and suggest ways to fix the UN
to make it more effective.
Constructivism is a theory that examines state behavior in the
context of state characteristics. All
states are unique and have a set of defining political, cultural, economic,
social, or religious characteristics that influence its foreign policy.
Each author is
developing a theory to explain the behavior of all states, not just one state.
Can you find universal patterns of activity,
universal rules that can used to explain how any state behaves?
So you use
historical data to test your theories. That’s what you’re examining in your
papers. An author has developed a theory
or tested two theories. How well does
the author’s argument hold up when tested against the historical data?
The US has always had an idealist streak in its foreign
policy (some disagree with this) and sees “bad guys” out there in the
international system.
How did
these organizations create US foreign policy would be the key question at this
level of analysis.
People
are greedy, insecure, and aggressive, so the states they govern will have those
same characteristics.
The world is anarchy and states do what they
can get away with to gain power and they do what they must to protect
themselves.
States try to
build a more just world order.
It is a system level
version of liberalism and focuses on the way in which institutions can
influence the behavior of states by spreading values or creating rule-based
behavior.