A famous quote generally attributed to American politician Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill states that “All politics is local”. Undoubtedly the domestic political landscape does have a profound effect in shaping foreign policy. The strength of the government, the domestic political climate, the relations amongst political parties and between them and civil society have an important bearing on the decision making environment on foreign policy. After all, usually the most important element of decision-making process in foreign policy is the “political struggle and bargaining between groups” (Dougherty & Pfaltzgraff, 1990, p. 477) within a given polity. The aim for all actors involved in this process is, “to maximize its interests, agendas, and goals”

Apart from the impact of intertwined networks of relations between disparate groups with differing priorities, what complicates foreign policy decision making environment more is the impact of transnational actors on different elements of the society. Rosenau called this phenomenon “linkage politics”. Linkage politics is defined as “a recurrent sequence of behaviour that originates in one state and is reacted in another” (Rosenau, 1969, 45). Growing linkages between the international system and domestic environment, where foreign policy decisions are made, forces foreign policy analysts to re-examine the role of the state as the exclusive sentinel governing the relations of their own society with the rest of the world.

As also understood from the information given, all factors in the options have an important bearing on the decision making environment on foreign policy, so the correct answer is E.