ABSTRACT
Neoclassical realism is a foreign policy analysis approach that seeks to comprehend international politics by considering the nature of the international system – the political environment in which states interact. Taking neorealism as their starting point, neoclassical realists argue that when states conduct their foreign and security policies, they respond in large part to the constraints and opportunities of the international system, but that their responses are shaped by unit-level factors such as state–society relations, the nature of their domestic political regimes, strategic culture and leader perceptions. According to neoclassical realists, the neorealist model has several significant limitations. For example, states do not always perceive systemic stimuli correctly, and the international system does not always present clear signals about threats and opportunities. This chapter divides the analysis into three broader sections. First, it generalizes the emergence and the assumption of the theory. Second, it will get more specific to define the explanatory and intervening variables of the approach, and third it will connect the approach with the analysis of the goal and instruments of foreign policy of a state.
