The study of foreign policy is generally approached according to a conception that is based on the independence between it and other policies. In this sense, that would be less mutually influenced by these. This way of analyzing reality could be applied without facing major explanatory limitations while foreign policy issues had national security as their main guiding element.. Yet, as the national and international agenda is expanded, foreign policy reveals a face much closer to that of other public policies.
Institutional fragmentation in the decision-making process, added to the emergence of new problems and actors, makes the separation between domestic policies and foreign policy increasingly complicated, so that it is no longer possible to identify just one responsible institution (Department of State, in the American case or MRE, in the Brazilian case) for its formulation (Hersman, 2000), even if it is possible to identify the actor or institution that, in & uacute; last & inst acirc; INSTANCE, responsible for the formal disclosure of the adopted policy.
Foreign policy, by not standing out from other policies adopted by a State, presents only those characteristics that are peculiar to it and, just in this sense, would be different from the others, as happens when trying to differentiate other policies from each other. Your study, therefore, must be done in the light of a discussion that involves the very notion of public policies.
A public policy "is presented in the form of a set of practices and standards emanating from one or more public actors" (Kessler, 2002 : 168). Among its main characteristics are:
(1) existence of content that guides human and material resources in the search for certain results, in a way that cannot be confused with an isolated act. It presents a relatively permanent structure that offers reference for actors in their decision-making processes; e
(2) has as one of its basic postulates the existence of convergence between the content of policy, the actors and mechanisms available for its execution.
In the specific case of foreign policy, and taking into account the aforementioned characteristics, it confirms its status as public policy since it is an activity carried out by the State and which aims to guide its relations with other States, making use of its own specialized bureaucratic body, as well as consulates and embassies.
Thus, it becomes necessary to delimit the study of foreign policy within a larger context, that is, a given foreign policy cannot be analyzed solely in terms of the set of actions and bureaucracies formally involved in it. Your study must consider not only the capacity for intervention and influence of the parties involved directly and indirectly, but also the set of interests of these same parties and which may be the result of cross bargaining, occurring at the domestic level.
Originally published in:
magazine Author (www.revistaautor.com.br)
special CNPq
Yes V – nº 47 / May 2005
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