ABSTRACT
Utilising the different models developed within International Relations and foreign policy analysis, this chapter attempts to build up a synthesis-like conceptual apparatus which would be useful in understanding the nature of Russia's decision-making and also in helping to analyse and explain particular foreign policy decisions. It starts with the simpliest possible assumption connecting the themes of actor and action principle, and treat Russia as a rational unitary state actor. The bureaucratic politics model challenges the assumption of the rationality of a state, but it nevertheless is consistent with the assumption that individuals are acting rationally on the basis of national, organisational, bureaucratic, or individual interests and desires, or of some combination of these. It is a synthesis-like solution which combines the bureaucratic and individual levels of decision-making, takes into account the cultural, historical and situational contexts, as well as includes elements that make it possible to scrutinize the dynamics of foreign policy.
