ABSTRACT
Systemic level approaches enable observations of patterns of interaction and generalizations about relationships in the international system, but they can exaggerate systemic influences on national actors and underestimate the impact of actors on the system. They also have the tendency to produce a sort of “black box” or “billiard ball” concept of the national actors, that is, a high degree of uniformity in the foreign policy operational codes of the national actors is automatically presumed. Complex interdependence posits a world in which actors other than states participate directly in world politics. Multiple channels of contact open up to expand non-governmental and transnational contacts. In Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye’s view, the structure of the international system profoundly affects the nature of an international regime. The international regime, in turn, affects and, to some extent, governs the political bargaining and daily decision making that occur within the international system.
