Political shocks in foreign policy and international politics: an alternative approach

Political shocks are used extensively in research on foreign policy and international politics yet the analysis of political shocks, as its own topic of study, remains underdeveloped, and especially so when compared to analyses of other key concepts in the field. What we do know about shocks primarily comes from work where the focus is typically on other phenomena driving the inquiry. In this effort we reconceptualize what is meant by political shocks, focusing on actual versus potential shocks, create a methodology for identifying actual political shocks, based on a punctuated equilibrium approach to foreign policy change, illustrate its utility with application to human rights violations by countries, and suggest at the conclusion a theoretical framework that may help to spur a more comprehensive approach to explaining political shocks effects for both interstate and intrastate politics.