Political regime and foreign relations : a historical perspective

INTER-NATIONAL

POLITICAL REGIME and FOREIGN RELATIONS

Do democracies have different foreign policies than authoritarian governments ? The main objective of this work is to investigate an area seldom dealt with in the theoretical trends of international relations : i.e. the foreign policies of States, through their connections within the international society, from the perspective of differences in political regimes. As the debates about the relationship between regime type and foreign policy are certainly not new, this book is a working document.
The first part of the work opens the debate, with historians and theoreticians that consider the problems in the light of the theory and historigraphy of international relations what is a «political regime» and how does the theoretical literature analyse the links between regime type, foreign policy and international relations. In the second part comparative views are proposed, with pragmatic analyses, historical cases, and the analysis of the foreign policy of states from the point of view of their respective regimes, in different parts of the world moving from Eastern and Western Europe to the United States, and from Latin America to Africa.
As historians are looking at theories of International Relations, while theoreticians are rediscovering the « vast laboratory of history »;, the reflection should be of very special interest, and not only for historians and political scientists.
A very thoughtful book on a fundamental issue.
Un ouvrage fondamental sur une question grave et pertinente : existe-t-il un lien entre le type de régime politique et les politiques existe-t-il un lien entre le type de régime politique et les politiques étrangères mises en œuvre ?