The Weaknesses of Bureaucracies in Foreign Policy

The weaknesses of bureaucracies in foreign policy Though bureaucracies offer plenty of advantages for foreign policy making, they still have various weaknesses that undermine the process. Firstly, bureaucracies always base their work on standard operation procedures or SOPs as the important factor for the process of decision making. Since the bureaucrat tasks based on SOPs, as the formal rule, are considered to be efficient. Though, SOPs can be changed when they are faced with serious problems, no individual official wants to transform or change the rules since they perceive that it might be a risk to fail in public (Hill, 2003: 93). Officials adopt SOPs as the best practice of their performance in public sphere since it provides a sense of security to connect their performance with the standard rules of bureaucracies (Peter, 2010: 206). As a result, foreign policy might be undermined as it obstructs the creative ideas for creating new perspectives to deal with various emerging notions that occur in today’s world. As the rul e, bureaucracies might be recognised as the old traditional perspective and, perhaps, not appropriate to cope with new challenges in the modern time. Further, bureaucracies are considered as institutions that lack support from the people since their work is different from politics; they are not elected by the people, nor do they have to secure their performance in public like politicians. Thus, there might be lack of interest from public arenaShow MoreRelatedBureaucracies Help More than They Hinder Foreing Policy Making1600 Words   |  6 Pagesexternal levels, particularly in the international sphere. 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