• china
• comparative foreign policy
• foreign policy
• taiwan
• usa

While the field of foreign policy has generated an impressive amount of research, there is still much to be explored and explained of the way in which regime types (totalitarian and democratic) influence the dynamics of state behavior at the international level. The present study
examines in a comparative way the characteristics that influence the process of foreign policy
making in totalitarian and democratic states. This can help achieve a better understanding of their foreign policy decisions and also help reveal valuable patterns in their decision making process. For the purpose of the present study, the United States of America and the People`s Republic of China were chosen as representative cases of the above mentioned highly contrasting regimes.
The foreign policy and diplomatic relationship of the two countries is analyzed on the period
between the 1940s and the 1970s using comparative foreign policy analysis, their differences
providing a fertile ground for comparison.