The foreign policy concerns how different societies interact, sometimes competing with each other and at other times managing to develop cooperation on a regular basis.

It is called to manage the continuous tug-of-war between, on one hand, the state, which seeks to maintain its independence and autonomy of action and to promote its interests, and, on the other hand, its immediate and broader external environment, which constantly imposes limits on the state's actions.

The book by Christopher Hill addresses the subject in all possible aspects, attempting to cover a broad historical and geographical range of empirical material, as well as the extensive theoretical corpus produced by the Analysis of Foreign Policy and, more generally, the science of International Relations.

Its intention is to assist the contemporary reader, for whom not only the Cold War but also the famous "new world order" of the 1990s may seem distant, to delve into the issues and understand the diversity of the international system and the multicultural character of many contemporary societies, with frequent references even to current political dilemmas, such as the issue of Ukraine, the civil war in Syria, international terrorism, and the crisis in the Eurozone.

By providing answers to fundamental questions such as "who shapes foreign policy?", "who makes critical decisions and on whose behalf?", "in what ways does domestic politics influence foreign relations, and vice versa?", it ultimately represents an attempt to define what one can and cannot expect as achievable from foreign policy today.