This book succeeds in its basic goal of demonstrating that foreign policy is a central part of international relations. The focus is on the field of foreign policy analysis (FPA), which seeks to understand the nature of agency in international relations. Foreign policy is defined as “the sum of official external relations conducted by an independent actor (usually a state) in international relations” (p. 3). The introductory chapters on the politics of foreign policy and those in the three main parts of the book, which cover agency, the international system, and responsibility for action, do justice to foreign policy as described in such inclusive terms.

Part I, on agency, covers actors, agents, rationality, and implementation. The quest for comprehensive explanation begins with a discussion of the importance of individual leaders and a reminder to determinists that foreign policy office-holders, in most circumstances, have more freedom to act than generally assumed. The review of bureaucratic politics is evenhanded and entails a thoughtful assessment of how this literature fits into the overall picture of FPA as a complement to ideas that derive from other levels of explanation. This analysis leads very well into an understated and compelling case in favor of “disjointed incrementalism” as the norm within the practice of foreign policy decision making and implementation (p. 103).

Even more interesting is Figure 6.1, which shows a continuum of power as related to implementation of foreign policy (p. 135). The continuum ranges from “soft” to “hard” (or from influence to power) and, by incorporating intermediate concepts like blackmail and sanctions, helps to move forward the previous hard/soft power dichotomy in relation to FPA (pp. 134–36). Discussion of the continuum introduces the most elaborate framework within the book, which links resources, capabilities, and instruments (pp. 136–38). This encompassing model is presented at a very general level, but is sufficiently developed to provide the foundation for applied work beyond the book itself, which would seem worthwhile.

Part II, which covers the international system, reveals the book's implicit and useful affiliation with the work of the English School. The chapter on living in an anarchical society provides an enlightening discussion of the emergence of norms regarding foreign policy, most notably in relation to humanitarian intervention and other contemporary issues among states. Transnational relations, covered in the following chapter, is discussed in a way that broadens FPA by connecting the worlds of peoples and governments to each other in relation to domestic and international politics. Perhaps the most interesting contribution of this chapter is a reminder that valuable ideas about linkage politics, expressed by James Rosenau several decades ago, have been neglected to the detriment of FPA. The concepts of reactive, emulative, and penetrative linkage are reintroduced and used effectively to explain the workings of a range of historical examples, from Hungary's failed rebellion in 1956 to contemporary anxiety among the French elite about U.S. influence on their culture.

Aspects of responsibility are covered in Part III. The chapter on domestic sources of foreign policy urges a sense of historical perspective in response to the field's overwhelming attention to the role of modern democracy in the last two decades. Derived from a perspective that values a wide range of historical evidence, concern is expressed about acceptance too quickly of generalizations that are taken, at best, from barely a century's worth of experience. This cautionary note highlights the book's use of historical examples from different periods and regions; it eschews any fixation on a small number of events that might be unrepresentative in some way or another. For example, the chapter on the constituencies of foreign policy probes generalizations about public ignorance of foreign policy and succeeds in bringing out some interesting nuances.

Purpose in foreign policy as related to choice, action, and responsibility is the subject of the concluding chapter. While he sees foreign policy as gaining public attention, the author also acknowledges that people in general do not compel action by governments. This mixed conclusion is consistent with the way in which the book stays away from sweeping generalizations and probes for more subtle connections. By the end of the book, the reader indeed is convinced of the main argument as noted at the outset, namely, that foreign policy is of central importance to international relations.

The Changing Politics of Foreign Policy is valuable to the field of international relations at several levels. It provides an excellent review of FPA that would be worth assigning both in general seminars and those devoted more directly toward comparative foreign policy. The citations are impressive and reflect the eclectic approach taken throughout—perhaps the book's greatest contribution is to provide a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of FPA as a field that includes insights from virtually all of the major approaches.

One area that could use more work is the role granted to rational choice. This approach is acknowledged at various points but could have been mined for more insights. For example, the claim that rational choice has had “little particular impact on the study of foreign policy” (p. 8) would not be borne out by a review of the literature on strategic interaction, which includes, for example, game-theoretic and other formal models of the actions given prominence in the continuum of power noted earlier. In addition, as put forward in many recent applications, the strategic approach does not require the assumption of the state as a unified actor; formal models of coalitions, for example, begin with precisely the opposite premise.

For a book with such a vast agenda, the lack of coverage for just one approach among many is a small failing. This volume should be required reading for those already in the field of FPA and may help to generate interest from new scholars.