Evolution of Foreign Policy Analysis

FPA SELF-REFLECTION IN THE LATE 1970S AND 1980S

A period of critical self-reflection began in the late 1970s and continued until the mid-1980s in FPA. The effects were felt unevenly across FPA: it is here we see the most pruning, both theoretical and methodological, which will be discussed in the moment. In decision making studies there was a period of rather slow growth due to methodological considerations. The information requirements to conduct a high quality group or bureaucratic analysis of a foreign policy choice are tremendous. If one were not part of the group or bureaucracy in question, detailed accounts of what transpired, preferably from a variety of primary source view-points, would be necessary.

FPA work at the psychological level actually expanded during the time period but work at the societal level arguably contracted on some research fronts. The reason for this bifurcation in the genotype was a methodological one: psychology provided ready-made and effective tools for the study of political psychology; political science did not over the foreign policy analyst the same advantage.