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The resulting statement that the findings of this thesis have given rise to is:the framing of foreign policy objectives in expansive terms and the allocation of resources to foreignpolicy goals in South African and Brazilian foreign policy is positively related to favourableperceptions of the state’s relative power position, and positively related to the extent to whichgoverning parties are able to mobilise and extract material, institutional and ideational resources insociety.In the context of Latin America’s ‘Left Turn’ or ‘Pink Revolution’, and continuingsecurity crises in Africa, presenting acute foreign policy challenges for major powerssuch as the United States, it is important to understand how global, regional anddomestic dynamics affect the eventual foreign policy behaviour of key regionalstates.Yet, the key contribution of this thesis has been its highlighting of the study ofgoverning parties and how their location within the domestic political structureimpinges upon their possibilities for influencing and directing foreign policy. Whilethe literature has noted the influence of political parties and governing regimes onforeign policy, in terms of state structure and levels of opposition, it has not shed asmuch light on the governing party as a repository of ideational direction andalternative diplomacy. The governing party, complete with its ideological tendencies,coalition strategies, and power political sensitivities, within a neoclassical realistframework, is important to our understanding of unit-level factors impinging onstate responses to external challenges and opportunities.8.1.2. Linking empirical evidence with theoryThe main difficulty with the evidence at hand was the degree of objectivity that itwas possible to access at any given time from those who were closest to the makingof political decisions. Brazilian diplomats and the South African ex-ministerinterviewed were generally promoting the official line, and this made it moredifficult to draw inferences about state behaviour and the perceptions of statesmenfrom those closest to them.280