ABSTRACT
The dominant theory and the customary code stress the decisive importance of the structure of the international system, the way in which the distribution of military, economic, and other capabilities shapes the policies of states. In 1989, the capabilities of the Soviet Union in "hard power" terms of military might and economic resources were not significantly lower than before, and the same can be said of those of the United States. French President Francois Mitterrand appears to have been left somewhat behind by events. It is the importance of domestic factors in understanding foreign policy, particularly the need to look at the configuration of internal political forces and the relations between what is often called "civil society" and the state. The structural theory was geared to a world in which states, as discrete actors, sought power or sought to balance power in a game that entailed the possible resort to war.
