Foreign Policy Analysis from the Perspective of Neoclassical Realism

Abstract

Neoclassical realism as a theoretical model belongs to the Realism School of Thought. It has its own vision about the state’s foreign policy analysis. This model’s assumption is interesting for scholars because it simplifies for the researchers in terms of how they analyze the different types of foreign policy decision-making. This model also is a result of its previous models in the same school such as classical realism and neorealism or structural realism. This work is a scientific effort for the sake of depicting the basic ideas behind the theory by showing and explaining the systemic and intervening variables on which this theory is working on them. The importance of this research is: the writer through using the original sources has made a precise explanation for the different assumptions of the theory, for this purpose, the study takes benefits from the comparison as well as the content analysis methods. In conclusion, the author concludes that Neoclassical realism theory has powerful theoretical assumptions for analyzing the state’s foreign policy because this model from two different levels of analysis is explaining foreign policy, internal and external factors, while the classical theory focuses on the internal issues, the neorealism focuses on the systemic factors.