ABSTRACT
Even when the focus falls on the state, analysing how it acts is difficult. Scholars used to simplify things by assuming that states made rational decisions in the pursuit of objective national interests. More recently, less rational processes have been emphasised by which political constituencies and bureaucracies mediate perceptions of interests and thus influence and often determine foreign policy outcomes. There is also
tension between the respective needs of democracy and those of foreign policy-making. There may not be time for democratic procedures in a Cuban missile crisis. At a more purely ethical level, are all means justified to secure the national interest? Might not some means corrupt the democratic state that they are supposed to preserve?2
