IR in the Middle East: foreign policy analysis in theoretical approaches

May Darwich, Juliet Kaarbo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
269 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Research on international relations of the Middle East (IRME) has suffered from a schism between International Relations (IR) theory and regional particularities. To address this, scholars have offered corrective accounts by adding domestic factors to IR structural approaches. Studies on IRME thus reflect the turn to decision-making and domestic politics that has recently occurred. This article develops a critical analysis of the domestic politics orientation in IRME. We argue that this scholarship ignores work in foreign policy analysis (FPA) with its psychological-oriented and agent-based dimensions and that this constitutes a missed opportunity for the study of the region. The article offers suggestions for incorporating FPA research into IRME and argues that an FPA perspective offers an alternative and complementary approach to the eclectic frameworks predominant in the scholarship on IRME.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Relations
Early online date20 Aug 2019
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Aug 2019

Keywords

  • foreign policy analysis
  • IR of the Middle East
  • IR theory

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