Session 8: Looking Within for the Without

It is interesting to note that over the ages, International Politics have been seen as an amalgamation of the interaction between a horde of states, which are individual and singular in the nature of their existence. Yet, what such a (surprisingly) widely accepted notion of International Politics does, is to forget to shed light on the intrinsic workings of the units (the States) that make up the overarching system (International Politics). In truth, states and their foreign policies are shaped by a multitude of factors; amongst which the bureaucracy, the makers of policy, play a vital role. The role of key ‘players’ within the realms of a unitary state are essential to understanding the front that the said state puts on toward other states – as bureaucrats are not only divergent in terms of what political goals to follow, but also the way in which to go about achieving them.

It is this view on the intra-national policies of a country shaping it attitude towards others in the form of its foreign policy that Graham presents in his insightful piece. Of particular importance is realizing this in context of the modern nation state, specifically democratic (or at the very least, those with varying degrees of democratic tendencies), where the direction a state’s policy takes are largely subservient to the personnel charged with leading political roles within that country. In sum, while the Bureaucratic Political Model lacks a strict scientific base from which to operate on, it offers much needed intuitive depth in its own way to the study of International Relations – specifically with its critique of the viewing of states as having unified, cohesive interests; rather than seeing states for what they really are: a mere amalgamation of varying, if overlapping, interests.