The Rosecrance model of domestic-foreign policy linkage and the politics of Imperial expansion

Abstract

It is probably fair to say that the work of Professor Richard Rosecrance represents the outstanding attempt of recent years to produce a general model of international relations and the making of foreign policies, based on the evidence of historical research. His bookAction and “Reaction in World Politicsdrew inductively from the historical evolution of the international system an analysis of the processes of that system. His latest book,International Relations: Peace or War?,summarizes the historical analysis of the earlier work and elaborates on its general discussion of foreign policy making, especially by drawing upon recent theoretical work by other authors. In both these books Rosecrance tries to explain the developments of international politics in terms of the long historical perspective, to show how fundamental changes in the nature of states and the international environment have altered the nature of relationships between states. The question to be explored here is the viability of Rosecrance's model and his explanations, examined in the light of a particular historical development which he