Leeway for Personal Impact: The Case of Foreign‐Policy Making in Norway*

Abstract

Setting their focus on the role of decision‐makers at intermediate and higher levels of a country's foreign policy administration, the authors analyze contextual factors that may determine the impact of decision‐makers' personal characteristics on foreign policy. The article highlights the dynamics of these factors in the case of Norwegian foreign policy‐making in the mid‐ and late 1970s. Over time, there has been a general relaxation of formal bureaucratic constraints, including the use of internally recruited political appointment, compounded by the growth of non‐traditional international public affairs. The Foreign Minister's leadership style appears to have served as a catalyst to create an environment in which middle‐to‐upper level administrative leaders and political appointees have had greater opportunity than previously to garner influence and make it felt.