ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the substance of the salient environment level for the explanation of foreign policy. The 'environment' is sometimes regarded as the homeground of specific geographical peculiarities that will tend to inhibit a nomothetic orientation aiming at theory-building. The chapter provides some conceptualizations suited to the salient environment level that should indicate its hospitality to theory-building. One might easily start with some environment features being easy to count, such as the environed unit's number of neighbours/ borders or number of international governmental organization memberships. The difference between an environment polarity and the familiar notion of systemic polarity could be illustrated, initially, from World War II: already from december of 1941 and even more with war events during 1942, it was apparent that the Allied powers would eventually win the war. The European Union polarity was necessary, but far from sufficient for understanding salient environments and thereby basic policy preconditions throughout the continent.
