At first glance, the term "principled pragmatism" seems to be an oxymoron. This could be true. However, the concept makes a lot of sense in the case of Mexican foreign policy. Officially, the government maintains that Mexico always bases its international links on normative and legal principles, such as Non-Intervention, Self-Determination, Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, among others. Nevertheless, on several occasions, the country has carried out external actions that reflect a pragmatic nature; but the government has tried to cover them with a "principled" discourse. Therefore, Mexico develops what might be called "principled pragmatism" in foreign policy.

Pragmatism, in foreign policy, means that a state acts, in the world realm, according to its own interests and particular objectives. In other words, the state acts rationally, as the realist paradigm of the international relations discipline points out. Idealism is when a nation behaves according to moral tenets. Therefore, this foreign policy is based on normative values, as the idealist paradigm indicates. Principled pragmatism would imply the use of both views in a particular combination.

In the Foreign Policy Analysis literature, there are several models and theories that are useful to explain foreign policy behavior, such as Realism and Liberalism and its variants, Marxism, Constructivism, the Two-level game Theory, the Level of Analysis Model, the Rational Actor Model, and so forth. However, this book proposes a different analytical framework which could be called "Principled Pragmatism." Therefore, the main purpose of this book is to analyze Mexico's foreign policy under this approach. However, the important question here is: Under what circumstances this nation adopts principled pragmatism? In other words: What are the external, domestic, and individual variables that determine when Mexico decides for that option! Thus, a central objective of this book is to identify those factors that explain Mexican principled pragmatism.

The main argument of the book is that Mexico projects a principled-pragmatic foreign policy due to external, domestic, and individual variables. First, sharing a border with a world power leads to the use of a realistic foreign policy but also a principled one. Pragmatism is needed to promote national interests and solve bilateral problems, and idealism is used as an instrument of bargaining power. Second, political, economic, and social realities also explain why Mexico adopts this policy. On the one hand, the government must enhance economic development, political stability, and social welfare. On the other, it must satisfy different interests of domestic groups and, at the same time, gain some legitimacy and political power. In this context, a principled-pragmatic option could be suitable for those aims. Third, actors have particular interests as well; thus, their preferences could impact decisions. Since Mexico's political system is characterized by a strong presidentialism, the president's interests, ambitions, and perceptions could also lead to a principled pragmatism according to specific circumstances.

This book was writing for teaching purposes mainly. It is targeted basically to international relations or political science students. But it could be useful for researchers or people interested in foreign policy analysis. As for the methodology, the book uses quantitative and qualitative information. Each chapter presents, at the beginning, key variables that could explain Mexico's principled pragmatism. These variables are classified into three sets of indicators: domestic, external, and individual. Then, each chapter describes and explains Mexico's foreign policy actions in each historical period, using the principled-pragmatic notion. At the end of each chapter, there is a brief analysis to discuss results and findings.