International Role and Commitments: International Legal Agreements as Tools of Foreign Policy.

Scholarship in foreign policy (FP) often examines the decision-making process or outcomes of states at a single level of analysis, and frequently the study is of a single case over a short period of time. By incorporating multiple levels of analysis within a comparative framework, more robust findings may be gleaned, yielding greater insight into the FP decisions that states make and which decisions can be anticipated under certain conditions.I attempt such a comparative analysis in FP by performing case studies of several countries over time, unpacking to how the domestic, state, and international levels of analysis combine causally to influence FP decisions. My paper will confine its scope to the issue area of international environmental commitments and the ways in which perceived national role in the international system and concomitant state priorities interact with domestic-level support, giving rise to predictable outcomes.I expect that those states that perceive their international roles as increasing will look to carve out a niche in the international system in a given issue area (such as environmental protection) while promoting domestic support for this area, which serves to signal a strong level of commitment to international audiences. States in decline will likely look to make any number of international commitments in an effort to “save face,” yet will fail to promote or allow domestic support for these commitments to grow. Finally, status-quo states will focus on issue areas directly related to security and power, sidelining issues that do not have direct bearing on the state’s ability to maintain its present level of power in the international system; domestic support for non-security-related issues will be minimal and stagnant over time. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]