Levels of Analysis

As there are many actors involved in IR, which contribute to the complexity of theories. One way scholars have sorted out multiplicity of influences, actors and processes is to categorise them into different levels of analysis 

1) The individual level of analysis concerns the perceptions, choices, and actions of individual human beings. Great leaders influence the course of history, as do individual citizens, thinkers, soldiers, and voters. Without Lenin, it is said, there might well have been no Soviet Union.  

2) The domestic (or state or societal) level of analysis concerns the aggregations of individuals within states that influence state actions in the international arena. Such aggregations include interest groups, political organisations, and government agencies. These groups operate differently (with different international effects) in different kinds of societies and states. For instance, democracies and dictatorships may act differently from one another, and democracies may act differently in an election years The politics of ethnic conflict and nationalism, bubbling up from within states, plays an increasingly important role in the relations among states. Within governments, foreign policy agencies often fight bureaucratic battles over policy decisions. 

3) The interstate (or international or systemic) level of analysis concerns the influence of the international system upon outcomes. This level of analysis therefore focuses on the interactions of states themselves, without regard to their internal makeup or the particular individuals who lead them. This level pays attention to states’ relative power positions in the international system and the interactions (trade, for example) among them. It has been traditionally the most important of the levels of analysis. Neo realist heavily focus on this 

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Can be added a fourth, the global level of analysis, which seeks to explain international outcomes in terms of global trends and forces that transcend the interactions of states themselves. The evolution of human technology, of certain world- wide beliefs, and of humans’ relationship to the natural environment are all processes at

the global level that reach down to influence international relations. The global level is also increasingly the focus of IR scholars studying transnational integration through worldwide scientific, technical, and business communities 

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT? 

Levels of analysis offer different sorts of explanations for international events. For example, many possible explanations exist for the 2003 U.S.-led war against Iraq. At the individual level, the war could be attributed to Saddam Hussein’s gamble that he could defeat the forces arrayed against him, or to President Bush’s desire to remove a leader he personally deemed threatening. At the domestic level, the war could be attributed to the rise of the powerful neoconservative faction that convinced the Bush administration and Americans that Saddam was a threat to U.S. security in a post–September 11 world. At the interstate level, the war might be attributed to the predominance of U.S. power. With no state willing to back Iraq militarily, the United States (as the largest global military power) was free to attack Iraq without fear of a large-scale military response. Finally, at the global level, the war might be attributable to a global fear of terrorism, or even a clash between Islam and the West. 

levels of analysis help suggest multiple explanations and approaches to consider in explaining an event. They remind scholars and students to look beyond the immediate and superficial aspects