ABSTRACT
Introduction In order to demonstrate how to do operational code analysis and apply it to solve the problem of explaining continuity and change in foreign policy decisions, it is desirable first to represent the problem and the general solution as a whole and then to decompose and convert it into a set of smaller, more manageable problems and solutions as a series of steps with the aid of some examples from operational code analyses of Henry Kissinger and Barack Obama. These steps are demarcated as the following research questions, which are addressed generally in this chapter and are the subject of more specific research designs in Part II Foreign Policy Decision Making and Part III Foreign Policy Learning of this book.
