ABSTRACT
A key rationale behind this book has been our desire to provide the basis for a contemporary critical assessment of FPA, which engages with developments within IR. This has involved a re-examination of premises that have been at the centre of FPA and for the most part remained largely unquestioned. In our view, one of the most consequential oversights is the absence of a theory of the state in FPA, with the corollary of FPA’s primary focus on decision making and the specific epistemological emphases it has given to that process. This in turn has been exacerbated by FPA scholars’ failure to adequately engage with critical intellectual developments in IR over the last two decades. This is strongly reflected in the exclusion of the debate on globalization from FPA and the inadequate engagement with constructivism, with special reference to foreign policy change. In the sections that follow, we offer for consideration some critical observations and analyses of the central challenges facing FPA flowing from our assessments of the field today, as well as possible areas for future development.
