Policy Analysis and Policy Work in Federal Systems: Policy Advice and Its Contribution to Evidence-Based Policy Making in Multi-Level Governance Systems

The first edition of Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy is one of the most successful Brookings titles of all time. This thoroughly revised version updates that classic analysis of the role played by the federal bureaucracy --civilian career officials, political appointees, and military officers --and Congress in formulating U.S. national security policy, illustrating how policy decisions are actually made. Government agencies, departments, and individuals all have certain interests to preserve and promote. Those priorities, and the conflicts they sometimes spark, heavily influence the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. A decision that looks like an orchestrated attempt to influence another country may in fact represent a shaky compromise between rival elements within the U.S. government. The authors provide numerous examples of bureaucratic maneuvering and reveal how they have influenced our international relations. The revised edition includes new examples of bureaucratic politics from the past three decades, from Jimmy Carter's view of the State Department to conflicts between George W. Bush and the bureaucracy regarding Iraq. The second edition also includes a new analysis of Congress's role in the politics of foreign policymaking.

Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy.

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Knowledge Regimes and Comparative Political Economy

An extensive literature argues that economic sanctions by themselves do not usually force governments to alter important policies, but the literature does not make it clear why this is true. According to its initiators, the purpose of the 1973–74 Arab oil weapon was to force changes in the policies of states toward the Arab-Israeli conflict. This article examines the responses of the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States to this attempted coercion. The analysis shows that these countries did not significantly alter their policies, apparently because the sanctions were unable to coerce top-level decision-makers and did not create much political pressure on them, a problem shared by most attempts at limited external coercion.

The Power of Oil: The Arab Oil Weapon and the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the United States

Think Tanks were “invented” more than thirty-five years ago. However, their actual performance is rather disappointing, with most countries having none and with existing units not supplying essential inputs into public policymaking. Comparison of policymaking needs with actual contributions of Think Tanks highlights many deficits, caused by exogenous and endogenous variables. Harsher adversities facing policymaking make the contributions of Think Tanks all the more necessary, with no existing other institutions being able to substitute for their under-performance. Therefore, breakthroughs are required for upgrading the contributions of Think Tanks to policymaking.

Required breakthroughs in Think Tanks

This study deals with aspects of the foreign policy-making process in a small Western European industrialized democracy: the Netherlands. A group of researchers from several Dutch universities carried out a research project regarding perceptions and attitudes held by members of the Dutch foreign policy elite. Interviews were held with members of the bureaucracy and the parliament (the formal elite) and with leading members of the churches, business, public interest groups, newsmedia and universities, political parties, advisory councils, and labor unions (the informal elite). An analysis is presented of problems of democratic control over foreign policy, as perceived by the elite. The perceptions of the elite of Dutch influence and power in world politics are dealt with, as well as the question whether the Netherlands should be seen as a "small nation" (and with what kind of consequences). Finally, three specific aspects of Dutch foreign policy are discussed: security policy, European unification, and development aid. The study is built in part on previous work, mainly by American authors, that has used the foreign policy- making machinery of the United States as its point of reference. Some of the conclusions of this article could well be used for comparative purposes, especially in the case of countries such as Norway and Sweden, in which similar studies have been conducted.

The Dutch Foreign Policy Elite: A Descriptive Study of Perceptions and Attitudes

Policy analysis and policy innovation : patterns, problems, and potentials

Think tanks—Who needs them?: Advising a government in a democratic society

Futures studies and policy analysis in the political process : patterns, problems, and potentials: a workshop organised by the European consortium for political research, Brussels, 17–21 April 1979

Peter R. Baehr

Papers

The Dutch Foreign Policy Elite: A Descriptive Study of Perceptions and Attitudes

Policy analysis and policy innovation : patterns, problems, and potentials

Think tanks—Who needs them?: Advising a government in a democratic society

Futures studies and policy analysis in the political process : patterns, problems, and potentials: a workshop organised by the European consortium for political research, Brussels, 17–21 April 1979

The Year Book of World Affairs, 1973