An approach to planning foreign policy systematically is presented. It is seen as an appropriate planning aid in situations where some form of goals can be stated, the subject matter is “well understood,†and potential disturbances in the patterns of interrelationship between variables...

“Problem representation†and “ontology†are introduced as concepts critical to understanding foreign policy decision making. The article explicates these concepts and their relationship and focuses on such issues of representation rather than veridical descriptions of...