The Nature of Comparative Foreign Policy; a Case Study on Iran-Syria Ties

Comparative study is one of the methods for studying the foreign policies of various countries. Comparative foreign policymainly intends to identify the factors influencing foreign policy decision-making and to devise comprehensive theories and models concerning states’ foreign policies. Comparative foreign policy presumes that the phenomenon of foreign policy is a complicated thing and cannot be explained just with a single variable like power, so there is a correlation between the basic variables forming states’ foreign policies. Furthermore, the logic of states’ foreign policies does not resemble isolated islands and unique items, but similar patterns can be found in states’ foreign policies. Inspired by James Rosenau’s model though updated with a different reading, a six-variable explanatory model is offered in this paper including the international system, power, government, role, socioeconomic characteristics, and the leaders’ characters, while analyzing the bases, objectives and problems of comparative foreign policy. In order to make the model practical, Iran-Syria ties will be analyzed accordingly.