Institutions and players – diversified policy making process

Foreign policy can be influenced by the process of foreign policy making (FPM). The process of policy making is defined chiefly in terms of the respective power of top leaders, leading decision making bodies, ministries and state branches, think tanks and advisers, media, public opinion, and even international opinion and commentators. Understandably, the more diversified the process, the more players can participate in the process, the more pluralistic views the final foreign policy would incorporate. It has been noted in the literature on China’s foreign policy making that

there was a trend toward a diffuse and pluralized FPM process in recent years.1 Few studies, however, shed light on the process of external policy making (EPM) and new features of foreign policies since the Sixteenth Party Congress.2