Traversing Boundaries: A Public Policy Approach to the Analysis of Foreign Policy

Insights from public policy scholarship have not been sufficiently transferred to the study of domestic influences on foreign policy. Building upon the policy literature which treats the nature of the issue as an independent variable and policy making as a cycle with stages, this paper constructs a typology of foreign policy issues with associated actors, arenas, and relationships. The accuracy and utility of the typology are tested by application to a transboundary environmental issue involving United States policy toward Mexico.