Theoretical approaches to the analysis of decision-making in foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany

The paper discusses theoretical approaches that can be applied in the study of the decision-making in the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. The analysis of the mechanisms and patterns of the decision-making in the foreign policy in Germany and the EU is already quite popular in the academia abroad, and it is also developing in Russia. A new comprehensive knowledge of the country’s foreign policy process can be obtained through a systematic study of the features of foreign policy decisions in Germany. Some authors investigate general trends in the country’s foreign policy, while others attempt to explain them by opening its “black box”. The built-up bureaucratic model of the system of decision-making in the field of foreign policy in the parliamentary democracy of the Federal Republic of Germany is called the “Bureaucratic Policy” (“bürokratische Politik”). The main legitimate actors of such policy are determined by the «Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland» (The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany). Therefore, the bureaucratic mechanisms of foreign policy, through which initiatives are implemented and decisions are made, need to be carefully studied.