ABSTRACT
The conceptual confusion between specific decisions and general foreign policy indicates the problems in the field of foreign policy analysis. Basic handicaps in the analysis of Third World foreign policies, especially of the decision-making process, are the lack of data and the cult of secrecy practiced by many state authorities. The literature on Third World international relations and foreign policy is still quantitatively limited and modest in quality. The bureaucratic-organizational school has reacted to the psychological-perceptual school in two ways: It has enlarged the arena of decision-making to include top bureaucrats, and it has refused to see decision-making as a deliberate choice to be made by any individual, even the president or the top decision-maker. To counter the serious deficiencies plaguing the established model, analysts of Third World foreign policy decision-making must turn to other schools of social analysis for inspiration. Regarding Third World foreign policy analysis in general, the attempt to combine conceptual frameworks with empirical data is nascent.
