International relations

This book is a concise core text in international relations. It is written mainly for students who are taking their first course in the discipline, and it stresses the necessity of dealing with situations in the real world on a practical, specific basis.

The approach is primarily analytical, and its central organizing feature is the "policymaker focus." It has four parts. 1. It involves a concern for the policymaker's actual perceptions and actions. A considered effort is made to view things through the policy

maker's eyes. 2. It includes an examination of the many factors that significantly affect the policymaker, whether he is aware of them (and correctly per ceives them) or not. Thus it is broader than just the policymaker's perceptions.

3. My approach includes a continuing effort to induce the student to

"put himself in the policymaker's shoes." Not only does this stimulate his

interest but also it is the only way that he can appreciate the complexities

and problems with which policymakers must deal. 4. The book contains a normative element. Frequently, there is an attempt to provide some guidelines as to how policymakers presumably "should" try to proceed in certain cases, what they probably "should" at least attempt to do, and so on.

Although the book is analytical, it will have eminent practical value. By focusing on the policymaker, it gives the student an understanding of the basic options that policymakers realistically might have available in concrete situations and the vast array of difficulties that they may encounter. Its pragmatic specificity also provides the student with a useful analytical foundation for his own examination of concrete situations.