Teoretyczne aspekty analizy polityki zagranicznej państwa

The aim of the present paper is not only to acquaint readers with some basic concepts related to the analysis of the state foreign policy but also, or even first of all, to show how international relations theories should be properly used in research into this matter. In the world that is changing dynamically, the concept of foreign policy itself also evolves. The author presents the assumptions of successive theoretical currents (realism and neo-realism, geopolitics, liberalism and neo-realism, globalism, constructivism and alternative approaches) indicating that each of them can have some strengths and weaknesses depending on the level of analysis adopted by a researcher. Assuming that theories see the world through a certain prism characteristic of them, the author argues that each one is predestined to explain a defined section of reality. That is why he assigns successive research currents, which in his opinion offer the biggest explanatory capabilities for the ongoing processes, to the three detailed basic levels of the state foreign policy (the system one, state one and individual one).