The foreign policy of any country is dependent on the
following factors
[1] Regional characteristics
viz. geography and physical environment, physical barriers, railroad
connectivity (landlocked), port connectivity (coastal boundary),
electrification rate, environmental pressures, largest and smallest boundaries
(both continental and maritime), capabilities of the neighbors and their
response towards the host country, poverty and regional disparity, economic
cooperation among countries, intraregional trade and other economic
opportunities, internal policies for stabilization and external policies for
regional integration, possible future scenarios A, B, C under conditions X, Y,
Z
[2] Strategic culture (mindset) that shapes the
response towards the events happening in their neighborhood and the outside
world, behavior of the country towards its neighbors (belligerent/assertive/revisionist
etc.), role of ideology and values that shapes the perception of the people
within the country, aspirations of the people regarding the place and position
where they want their country to be seen in the world, historical legacy and
hangover, role of key events in shaping their sense of nationalism etc.
[3] Pattern of the economy (major items of production,
exports and imports composition, sectors of cooperation and competition, major
economic challenges, major centers of production, economic corridors, material resources,
economic capabilities like existing size of the internal market, per capita
purchasing power, business environment and associated maturity of the
institutions that create the market, tariff and non-tariff barriers, regulatory
issues, technological advances and capabilities, speed of mobilization of
available resources etc., other drivers of the economy viz. foreign aid,
remittances, FDI etc.)
[4] Contemporary social issues, religious and ethnic
composition, stabilizing and destabilizing threats like inequality, demographic
trends etc., loyalty and inclination etc.
[5] Human resource quality and quantity (extent of
globalization, digital literacy and internet penetration, levels of
productivity, creative and innovativeness etc., size of the population and their
spatial distribution within the country)
[6] Internal and external threats (both traditional
and non-traditional, qualitative and quantitative and associated hot-spots for
conflict). They may include religious or ethnical groups like Al-Qaeda, Free
Syrian Army (FSA), The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), The
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) etc. (usually seen as hostile
actors by the ruling government). Nontraditional threats include environmental
pressures like rising water levels, disasters, climate change, food and water
security, energy security, poverty, lack of efficient human capital etc. Security
and privacy of digital data which is a new form of security threat that can be
categorized under qualitative compartment.
[7] Political structure (power politics and internal dynamics
inside the government, how does it try to gain support and legitimacy, hierarchy
and ideological differences among the people in power, scope for
maneuverability, aspirations and actual capabilities of the government, quality
of governance, its strategic orientation and priorities, other poles of power
inside the government, federal or unitary structure and their capacities, evolution
of other adjoining political institutions, mindset of the policy makers, maturity
and integrity (free from corruption) etc.)
[8] Most relevant
actors and lobbying groups viz. state and non-state (Non state actors include economic
agents like the Trans National Corporations (TNCs), transnational diaspora
communities in immediate neighborhood and other parts of the world (intercountry labour
flows including expatriates working on work visa,
students on study visa etc.) legal and illegal refugees, non-governmental
institutions like Greenpeace, Oxfam etc., cross-border R&D organizations
& universities working on joint projects, electronic media like social
networking sites (Facebook), entertainment (Hollywood) and news channels
(Al-Jazeera and CNN) etc. as well as the print media, think tanks that broker
negotiations at various platforms, investment directing credit rating agencies
like Moody’, Fitch, S&P etc., powerful Individuals like celebrities in
Sports and Noble Prize winners. For e.g. Leonardo DiCaprio advocating on
agendas like Climate Change, Amartya Sen etc.
[9] Influence of the neighbors in other institutions
(regional organizations like ASEAN, EU and the African Union, international
institutions like the United Nations, ethnocultural organizations like the
Organization of Islamic Conference, economic organizations like the World Bank
(WB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) etc., Security based
organizations like NATO, CSTO and SCO
[10] Global pressures like sanctions against human
rights violation, weaponization, corruption, censorship of press etc.
[11] Relationship with the global powers
[12] Soft power in other countries
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