Is British Foreign Policy mainly conducted by the Prime Minister Essay

Is British Foreign Policy mainly conducted by the Prime Minister - Essay Example Ideally, the foreign policies are supposed to protect the interests of the citizens of a particular nation. This has not always been the case. According to Steiner (2004, p. 21) the state has collective representation on different fronts. These include, Heads of state, Prime Ministers, Presidents, commissioners and ambassadors among others. It becomes a bit difficult in understanding that realy plays the leading role in foreighn policies. According to Williams (2004, p. 910) the British foreign policy is not a product of political vacuum but rather a product of domestic factors such as the current public opinion on certain issues, pressure from global emerging issues like technology, interactive, activities from regional organization like the European Union and other transnational forces like the NGOs and other lobby groups. Ideally speaking, the ministers, government officials and other outsiders who are experienced and informed on particular issues are the ones who are supposed to formulate policies. This is on the basis of informed talks of any possible alternatives and putting into considerations relevant historical background and presidents. They also put into account the positions of any involved institutions and the legality of the proposed policy. After the formulation, the policy is interpreted by officials who later implement in order for it to attain the objective intended for. During the whole process, th ere are other interested parties that need to go through the policy. These are both in UK and abroad. In general the process of policy making in UK is made up of the following steps; Formulation, Interpretation, Implementation and Presentation. The process of policy making in the UK at some point seems to be very wide and may involve all government officials and a huge number of outsiders from both foreign states and NGOs. Despite that is said that this remains to