The objective of this article is to analyse the impact of the Spanish democratic transformation on its multilateral relations. It analyses the strategies of Spanish governments in the transformation era and the process of accession to NATO, the Council of Europe and the European Communities. Source analysis and criticism methods (applied mostly to Spanish-language texts), as well as comparative analysis were employed for the needs of this article. Based on her research, the author concludes that changes to Spanish foreign policy were evolutionary in nature. Therefore, it took Spain several years to regain the full confidence of its partners. Before any breakthrough changes could occur in the multilateral dimension, Spain needed to normalise its bilateral relations. The democratic elections conducted on the 15th of June 1977 in Spain was the breakthrough without which no accession to any important international organisation could ever happen. As the event clinched the state's democratisation, it paved the way for Spain to join soon the Council of Europe. The accession process for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was more complex. The Spanish political scene was divided in that matter. Spain's accession to the European Communities was the longest process. It was subject not only to the state's democratisation progress but also to economic issues.
The aim of this article is to present a section of Spanish research on the theory of foreign policy of the state against the background of European, American and Latin American arrangements. The publications of Luis V. Pérez Gil and Rafael Calderch Cervery were the basis of the analysis. This article is an introduction to further research. Research problems have been tackled in order to answer the following questions: 1) How do Spanish teachers define foreign policy, and which theorists of international relations do they relate to? 2) What are the phases and goals of foreign policy? 3) How do Spanish scientists define the national interest and which theoretical researchers of international relations do they refer to? The article uses methods of analysing and criticising sources.
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