Painful Choices: A Theory of Foreign Policy Change.By David A. Welch. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.312p. $35.00.

In this book, David A. Welch delivers a nuanced and parsimonioustheory of foreign policymaking and policy change. Welch alsoaddresses a perennial concern in international relations, namelywhether the search for a general IR theory is futile. His answer,and a persuasive one at that, is that such a search can be fruitfulif we ask the right questions.