ABSTRACT
The North European region offers a rich testing ground for the most similar systems design approach. The most similar systems design is a possible avenue toward constructing empirically based theories of foreign policy behavior. The number of political, economic, and cultural factors which could be eliminated from the analysis is large and on the other hand there are still important differences in foreign policy to be accounted for, particularly in alliance policy and in foreign economic relations. Naturally, US and British researchers have found North European foreign policies in general less relevant to their own national conditions and external objectives. If North European foreign policy studies are to contribute to the advancement of the comparative study of foreign policy, more analysts must break away from their traditional preoccupation with single-country studies. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
