Foreign Policy

Dr. Heather Chingono

 Definition of Foreign Policy
• Foreign policy is a mix of all of the stands and positions a nation holds
with other countries.
• It includes what the government has said to/about other countries and
what the government does in other countries.
• Conceptions of foreign policy stretch from an emphasis on external
actions of (state) governments.
• Foreign policies spell out the objectives state leaders have decided to
pursue in a given relationship or situation.
• The foreign policy of any state reflects the way in which its government
defines its own mission and the extent to which that mission is shared
by the population as a whole
• A country’s choices in foreign policy directly affects the citizens of the
country.
 Foreign Policy
• Foreign policy generally is understood as a program that serves as a guide
to behaviour intended to realise the goals an organisation has set for itself.
• It is thus a guide to actions taken beyond the boundaries of the state to
further the goals of the state.
• Its intention is to affect the behaviour of other actors even if only in
general terms because nothing is distributed equally in the global system
as every state requires resources, economic goods, military capabilities,
political and strategic support and cooperation and coordination with
other actors.
• The issue of national interests is also very pivotal in the matrix of foreign
policy
 Other Key Definitions
• Foreign policy is the strategy or approach chosen by a
national government to achieve its goals on its relations with
external entities. Such strategies include decisions to do
nothing.
• Foreign policy behavior are the observable artifacts of foreign
policy-specific actions and words used to influence others in
the realm of foreign policy.
• Foreign policy analysis: the subfield of international relations
that seeks to explain foreign policy, or, alternatively, foreign
policy behavior, with reference to the theoretical ground of
human decision makers, acting singly and in groups
 Realism and Foreign Policy
• Realism is based on the premise that the world politics is
essentially and unchangeably a struggle among self-
interested states for power and position under anarchy, with
each competing state pursuing its own national interests.
• Accordingly the primary obligation of every state- the goal to
which all other national objectives should be subordinated –
is to promote
• its national interest and to acquire power for this purpose.
Realism as a theory is utilised to interpret a countries’ foreign
policy especially through the pursuit of national interests by
states.
• Realist look for where the power is, what the group interests
are, and the role power relationships play in reconciling
 Rational Actor Model
• Rational Model
• Decision makers set goals
• Evaluate their relative importance
• Calculate the costs and benefits of each possible course of
action
• And then choose the one with the highest benefits and
lowest costs.
• Role of uncertainty
• Accepting of risk versus averse to risk
• A very useful tool during the Cold War
 Rational Actor Model
• Foreign policy is viewed as a calculated
response to the actions of another actor
• That causes a calculated response from the
first actor which leads to reevaluation and
readjustment by the second actor
• Throughout this process, the state is seen as
unitary and rational
 Critique of the Rational Actor Model

• Because time is short to do a lot of bargaining,

many decisions are based on existing
organizational standard operating procedures
(SOPs)
 Goals of Foreign Policy
• Preventive war (preemption): policy of striking first
when a nation fears that a foreign foe is planning
hostile action
• Appeasement: effort to forestall war by giving in to
the demands of a hostile power
• Security: Traditionally concerned with dangers
posed by hostile foreign nations and nonstate actors
• Allegiances: Competing for the allegiances of other
countries
 US Foreign Policy
• Foreign Policy revolves around issues such as
1. Treaties and Alliances
2. Trade
3. The Defense Budget
4. Aid (Foreign, Economic, and Military)
5. The United Nations
6. Nuclear Defense Testing and Disarmament
Agreements
7. The seas being free of any nation’s control is an
inflexible part of America’s foreign policy.
 The Presidency and Foreign Policy
• The president is the chief diplomat of any country in
order to maintain positive relations with many
countries around the world- negotiating
international agreements- which include peace
treaties, alliances, disarmaments agreements, and
trade agreements.
• Another way is to create policy statements which
are formal documents that the president would
write to tell how the nation and its government
would react and deal with certain affairs.
 Three Levels of Influence
• Global Level-structural features of the international system
such as the prevalence of civil wars, international
institutions and trade interdependence
• State Level-internal or domestic influences such as the
state’s type of government or the opinions of the citizen,
size, wealth, type of gvt, mil cap,
• Individual Level-characteristics of leaders –their personal
beliefs, values and personalities
• All 3 will simultaneously affect but the relative weight
depends on the issue and circumstances at the time of
decision making.
Geographic Influences on Foreign Policy

• Location and physical terrain

• The number of neighboring states on borders,
protection from invasion by natural barriers
such as mountains and oceans determines
how a state act towards other states.
 Military Capabilities
• Military capabilities limit a state’s range of prudent
policy choices and act as factor on leaders’ national
security decisions
• Saddam Hussein
• Perceptions constructed of Iraq’s military capability
and terrorist motives not reality guided US decisions of
Iraq attacks.
• US carried an unprovoked, preemptive attack-Bush
Doctrine
•
 Economic Decisions
• Level of economic and industrial development
• Rich states have interests far beyond their
borders and have the means and to pursue
and protect these
• Levels of productivity and prosperity
• Some poor countries-comply subserviently
• Others rebel defiantly often succeeding
despite their disadvantaged position
 Type of Government
• Compare Saudi Arabia controlled by a king and
royal to Switzerland governed by a multiparty
democracy
 Constraints in Foreign Policy making
• The fact that they are responding to the demands for both
external and internal challenges simultaneously
• Environments of uncertainty and multiple competing
interests-satisficing
• Short periods that can impair leader’s cognitive abilities
and may cause emotional rather than analytical decision
making processes
• Bounded Rationality-The concept that decision makers
capacity to choose the best option if often constrained by
human and organizational obstacles e.g deficiencies in
intelligence and capability, group agreements.
 Zimbabwe’s Foreign Policy
• Being part of international and regional organisations
membership such as SADC, UN decreases the vulnerability of
a country like Zimbabwe in issues to do with peace and
security issues.
• These organisations facilitate the creation of alliances and
coalitions that at best put the interests of protecting their
countries from conflicts. If there is a conflict then they will
stick together to deal with it.
• Harmonize local policies with that of the region especially in
economic issues in order to ensure economic prosperity
which will in turn reduce the possibility of uprisings and
revolts of locals.
 Zimbabwe’s Foreign Policy
• Entering into treaties that have a thrust on ensuring the
peace and stability of nations.
• Embrace the concept of human security and construct policy
goals and objectives in line with respect for human security
to avoid the possibility of disgruntlement and frustration
among the citizens. Citizens’ disgruntlement and frustration
can cause chaos and crisis destabilizing peace and security.
E.g. environmental security, e.g. tightening borders and
border controls to deal with issues of human, drug trafficking
and smuggling of firearms.
• Shun external interference. Most African states are failing to
uphold this principle and most of them are fighting proxy
wars.
 Zimbabwe’s Foreign Policy with China
• China’s support of liberation movements in southern Africa-“a
Marxist-Leninist of Maoist thought,” thus demonstrating
commitment to socialism and to waging a “people’s war”
• economic investment opportunities
• Chinese government sought to gain enough votes in the
United Nations General Assembly to prevent international
organizations from passing resolutions condemning-1989
• Between 1989 and 1997, Sino-African trade increased 431
percent, with most of this growth concentrated in southern
Africa.
• The Look East Policy
 Third World Foreign Policy Objectives

• 1.    Gain respect on the world state and for its

states to be treated as equals after centuries
of inferiority witnessed in slavery and
colonialism
• 2.    Legacy of colonialism
• 3.   Dominant cold war tensions/globalism
• 4. Opposition to racism
• 5.  Economic modernization and development
 Priority Obligations
• The ability of a developing state to achieve its policy
objectives vary in accordance with the given issue or
issue area. It is possible to identify 4 such issue areas
• 1. High priority issue or core values- Core values are of
such intrinsic value that states invest vast amounts of
resources in order to safeguard them e.g. a country’s
territorial integrity.
• 2. Regional issues
• 3. Continental issues
• 4. Global issues
 Priority Obligations
• Developing countries have a significant ability
when dealing with issues that are purely
regional or local in character e.g SADC,
ECOWAS, OAU….
• However it should be noted that in the
contemporary era of globalization even so
called local or regional; issues can and often
do, assume a global character as a result of
super power intervention.
 Conclusion
• A developmental foreign policy is pro-
engagement; it is not isolationist.
• It is fundamentally concerned with addressing
domestic, continental, and global disparities
and inequalities.
• Some countries formulate and publish their
foreign policy goals.
• Sometimes a country’s foreign policy goals are
not published, but kept under wrap for
security purposes.