Description
This paper examines foreign policy in the Middle Eastern context and argues for the value of regional examples to the broader study of the field. The work demonstrates specific indicators of transformation as critical pillars that announce both the ontological and epistemological need to reconsider traditional foreign policy approaches. Beyond structural determinants that shape a new outlook in foreign policy, this study problematizes its ontology by drawing attention to the role of the actor as an agent of foreign policy practice. A contemporary approach includes other actors alongside states, while the latter remains the prime actors of the international relations system. The impact emerging elements have on foreign policy explains the need for a novel epistemology and asserts that, although traditional patterns of foreign policy continue to exist, they do so in a state of transition.
