Foreign Policy Analysis of France

Foreign policy analysis is an important component of the academic discipline of International Relations. The practice of foreign policy is a key political activity of nearly all states. Foreign policy actions and discourses, finally both shape and reflect the structure of world politics. Foreign policy analysis developed at about the same time as the behavioral approach in political science. The objective of the behavioralists was to study political behavior using systematically measured variables, statistical techniques, and unambiguously stated hypotheses. In some areas of political science behavioralist studies used measurement techniques that had been developed earlier. Foreign policy is composed of goals sought, values set, decisions made and actions taken by states and national governments acting on their behalf in the context of the external relations of national societies. It constitutes an attempt to design, manage and control the foreign relations in national societies. The political, economic, institutional, social and psychological dimensions of foreign policy will be examined. Foreign policy is the product of human agency, that is to say, individuals in a leadership position identifying foreign policy issues, making judgments insight the product of the critique of rationality in decision making that initiated a concentrated study of the impact of individual psychology on foreign policy. Underlying this approach was the recognition that individual leaders of states exercised a seminal influence over the foreign policy process by dint of their experience, outlook and limitations, and were therefore worthy of special attention. Among the diversity of psychological factors said to play a role in shaping foreign policy are the influence of individual perceptions, human cognition, a leader's personality and the dynamics of group decision making.

From as early as 1945 European construction has been at the heart of French foreign policy. There have been several major reasons for this: the desire to restore peace and guarantee the security of the States, strengthen democratic government and build an integrated economic and monetary area able to ensure prosperity for the peoples of Europe Since then, France has unceasingly worked for making the European edifice a reality and developing it into an economic power and respected political forum.

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