Nigeria, April 3 -- Conceptual Characterisation

Foreign policy is a complex pot pouri of ideas, impulses, perspectives, and objectives, which every country is compelled to engage. It is not just that no country exists as an island on its own, but none has the leeway to choose its neighbours. The situation is made particularly challenging because, while at best a country may help in shaping the nature of its external environment, no nation, no matter how powerful, is in full control of the dynamics therein. It is in order for nations, and political regimes, to make sense of the maze of data waiting to be dealt with, and issues of interests to be handled in the external domain, that foreign policy thrusts are established. Such seek to prio...