Abstract

Foreign policy is the pursuit of national interest in the international arena. This was long the domain of the state, involving state-to-state interactions undertaken by diplomats. Three changes over time complicate our understanding of foreign policy today. The first is the challenge of defining the national interest in a globalized world, when states confront challenges, ranging from climate change to terrorism, that require multilateral and multisector solutions. The second is the erosion of not only the state’s role in pursuing its foreign policy, but also the role of diplomats, as other actors, both government agencies and non-state actors, have entered into the arena of government-to-government interaction that was formerly the diplomatic realm.