Abstract
How do sub-national entities, such as bureaucracies and individuals, respond to major changes in the international system, such as the end of the Cold War? Three recent studies of the USA which examine US foreign policy and the rise of Iraq as a rogue state, US policy toward rogue states, and the US role in supplying weapons to various countries, particularly those in the Middle East, argue that they tend to pursue existing policies despite global changes. If these analyses of the USA are correct it would suggest that future studies of other states would also indicate continuity rather than discontinuity.