Description
After the conclusion, and arguably failure, of the two landmark projects of Comparative Foreign Policy—i.e., Rosenau’s ‘pre-theories’ and the CREON project—a couple of decades ago, this particular strand of FPA research had lost much of its traction and appeal. This has changed in recent years, however, when calls to recover the comparative analysis of foreign policy has reinvigorated scholarship in this direction. This paper seeks to further advance this foundational comparative tradition in FPA by trying to accomplish two goals: First, it reflects upon the genealogy of the field and the contemporary context within which it arose and prospered. Placing comparative foreign policy research in an historical perspective allows for highlighting research trajectories and insights that, while overshadowed by the aforementioned projects at the time, seem worthwhile pursuing further. Second, the paper indicates a number of (for lack of better words) variables, or levels of analysis, that due to the U.S. centrism of the field of FPA have not received as much attention as they have should in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of foreign policy making in other (i.e., non-US) political systems.
