In the reading by Graham Allison and Morton Halperin a new theory
for reviewing international relations, namely: bureaucratic political model; is
presented. The need for an alternative approach arises due to the shortcomings
of the traditional approach. The age-old approach to IR, as described by the
authors, is reductionist in nature as it boils down the complexities involved
in international politics to decisions taken by one actor.
However, according to the political scientists this rational actor
approach to the arena of international relations leaves much to be desired. For
example, and most importantly, it ignores the involvement of bureaucracy which
they term as the 'maker' of government policy and describe it as a combination
of big organizations and political stakeholders whose views regarding what the
state should do about an issue differs substantially from each other and hence,
they compete against each other in order to influence decisions of the
government in line with their views.
Their paper, thus, focuses on providing an approach which takes in
to account the policies and actions which occur within a nation and their
effect on the state’s behavior in international relations.
Foreign policy is an extremely important part of international
relations. It is crucial because in the increasingly globalized and
interdependent world, stable and cooperative relations between countries are
advantageous. The work by Graham Allison and Morton Halperin is seminal because
their research allows for greater understanding of this important element of
IR. And according to sources, their work revamped the study of political
decision making.
Political decision making is complex and you're absolutely right that Allison and Halperin have helped us understand the nuts and bolts of this process. After all, the macro decisions of a state are indeed made up of multiple micro decision on various levels of a state's bureaucracy.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the point that studying the field through such a lens is reductionist indeed and that Allison's work should be credited also because it provides an alternative model which attempts to encapsulate the former models faults and gives a lens through which in my opinion history too would be more accurately recorded.
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