Any effort to understand of foreign policy objectives should start by the determination of the priorities and the objectives of the given country. These priorities and objectives either pertain to a paramount overriding goal that all or most of the foreign policy effort is spend to secure; (This is usually associated with the high-political concerns pertaining primarily to survival.) or, more often, an attempt to attain specific objectives and goals on a given issue. Objectives and goals are inevitably related to threats, risks and opportunities associated with the issue at hand. However, ideally they are expected to be contemplated contingent to or in consideration of the former. Nonetheless, in practice it is not uncommon to see the everyday pressures created by exigencies take precedence over higher political considerations. In this case, it is not surprising to see urgencies dominating the priorities as they dictate the agenda.

Next, the systemic analysis would provide the decision-maker with the information he/she needs to understand the constraints, risks and opportunities that the structure of the system provides in lieu with the realization of the foreign policy objectives in question. Then, comes the capability analysis through which the decision-maker carries out a systematic evaluation of the available sources of national power. This practically involves an analysis of the means, available and required. It should start with the determination and assessment of required capabilities for the objective, given the ways – strategies – contemplated to attain the goals and reach the objectives. Next, an inventory analysis aimed at determination of available/ relevant means and detection of possible gaps should be carried out. Necessary action to mitigate and, if possible eliminate the gaps should be taken at this stage. The final stage involves the analysis of the capabilities and intentions of the counterparts. Here, the capabilities take precedence over the intentions as the latter might change with changing contexts – as might be brought about by changes of leadership, regimes etc. Hence, an assessment of the ‘objective’ capabilities is perennial in understanding the circumstances within which the actors will operate.

As can be understood from the information given, the correct order is as follows; I-II-III-IV-V, so the correct answer is A.