ABSTRACT
The discussion in the previous chapter centred on the limits imposed on foreign policies, and the motivations or impulses imparted to them, by the domestic environment within which decision-makers see themselves to be operating. But foreign policies are not made in a vacuum. They are made in relation to other bodies similarly acting in the global arena. No relations among humans or human groups can be maintained over anything more than a very short period of time without a certain minimum regulation, be it conventional, customary, ethical, legal, or institutional. But regulation of whatever kind acts in greater or less degree to limit the freedom of manoeuvre of the units that are regulated, and the success of foreign policy decision-makers in achieving their goals will be affected by the extent to which they reckon accurately with these constraints. This is the first element of the international environment. The second and more important element is the policies and actions of other internationally acting bodies, of which the other states we are for the time being assuming are the most important. The chances of success of a foreign policy are reduced if insufficient account is taken of what other states or groups have done or are doing, or are likely to do in the future, in response to the particular policy in question or to some other stimulus in a different part of the international arena. How much account must be taken will vary according to the relative capabilities of the states or other bodies involved in a particular question, capabilities being defined to include the priority respectively attached to the question by the participants, and their willingness or unwillingness to mobilize in relation to it the resources of which they potentially dispose. This introduces the concept of power, which will be discussed in the concluding section of this chapter.
