POL486H1S L0301

Topics in International Politics I

Comparative Foreign Policy

Themes

The most characteristic feature of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) as a distinct sub-field of IR is that it opens up the ‘black box state’ and examines the decision makers that act as well as the political processes that unfold inside that box. In doing so, FPA has specified Waltz’s first- and second-image perspectives by highlighting a broad array of distinct characteristics of leaders as well as a number of domestic institutions that could serve as drivers of states’ external behaviour. It is within and across those levels of analysis that a comparative approach to the study of foreign policy can be fruitfully employed. Accordingly, in this course we will employ those different lenses pertaining to leaders and domestic institutions to make sense of foreign policy decision making processes and outcomes in a (geographically, politically, economically, etc.) diverse set of countries from around the globe.

Texts

TBA

Format and Requirements

TBA

Prerequisites

POL208H1 or POL208Y1 or POL209H5 or POLB80H3