Abstract
This chapter shows how familiarity with realist theory improves foreign policy analysis (FPA). The main challenge is to exploit two features of realism that are often in tension with each other: its firm grounding in centuries of real foreign policy practice, and its aspiration to create powerful general theories that help to simplify and explain the international setting in which foreign policy takes place. The chapter identifies a branch of realist theory—neoclassical realism—which bridges the gap between these two aspects of the realist tradition and thus is most useful for the analysis of foreign policy.
