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The Bureaucratic Politics Model (BPM) is usually employed to explain crisis decision-making in US foreign policy. Proponents of the model argue, however, that its explanatory scope also encompasses non-crisis decision-making in domestic political issues in parliamentary systems. This paper takes up this claim and applies the BPM to the reform of the German Federal Criminal Police Office. In line with the BPM's predictions, the paper finds that the policy preferences of the key actors were indeed strongly influenced by their bureaucratic position and the outcome of the decision-making process was a compromise solution. However, the model cannot account for the impact of two non-executive institutions, that is, the Federal Constitutional Court and the Bundesrat, on the executive bargaining process. This finding suggests that the BPM could be an even better analytical tool if it were expanded to systematically incorporate the influence of non-bureaucratic actors into its framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the conditions in Germany concerning the relationship between Soviet Union and the U.S. Several factors are being examined which include the power politics and the modern technology. Meanwhile, political leaders are convinced that in the case of a direct attack on one's country, this rational must stop and the instinct of fighting back at all cost will take over. The author believes that the grand design of American policies in the power struggle with Soviet Union should be the widest possible stabilization of the status quo.