The Bureaucracy at state level isn’t often a consideration when
the discussion is about foreign policy or the foreign affairs of a state.
Allison in his article “Bureaucratic Politics” provides an insight into another
model of understanding politics and looking at International Relations. Bureaucracy,
as it stays in place while governments come and go, certainly affects foreign
policy, and often affects the outcome of what a state will or will not do.
Public
Opinion, though matters in pointing an elected government in a particular
direction, it is the state actors who always have the final call, as it is the
state that knows what’s best for its survival. Even in the model democratic
states, say the United States for example, no major foreign policy decision is
taken without consulting with the CIA or the NSA. In Pakistan for example, on
the face of it, it is the government that is handling the country’s foreign affairs,
but in actuality no decision is taken without first consulting with the
establishment.
At a
micro level, Institutions are also competing with each other, lobbying and putting
pressure on one another trying to obtain the outcome that best suits the institution’s
interests. This game at the micro level, and the different players within the
state, affect state policy at the global level, and though as much as we want
to treat each state as a unitary actor, because it makes their behaviors that much
simpler to study, it cannot be ignored that the actions at the level of state
institutions, are essential in affecting the policy that a particular state
adopts.
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