Executives and foreign policy

This chapter highlights the important role that foreign policy executives play in foreign policy decision-making around the world. In contrast to traditional international relations (IR) theories that argue foreign policies are determined primarily by systemic pressures of anarchy, economic interdependencies, and prevailing norms, we focus on two key themes that emerge in foreign policy analysis (FPA) research on executives in particular: power and processes. Our survey of the literature suggests just how important it is to study executive behaviour 'in the rooms where it happens' for FPA. The chapter also identifies promising future directions for research on these themes, calling for attention to the nature of states and implications for executive foreign policy powers and a widening of empirical, methodological, and conceptual lenses in analyses of executive foreign policy-making. These developments could strengthen bridges between FPA and IR, as well as between FPA and public policy and comparative politics.