Having made a strong commitment to act on a problem, and received the politically necessary media coverage, governments tend to feel free to gradually reduce the level of their commitment so that little is in effect accomplished in response to the problem. The reduction of commitment may take the form of disempowering the agency mandated to act, either by imposing impossible constraints, reducing the funds committed to the project, or appointing incompetent people to manage the programme.
The basic problem in foreign policy formulation is the growing number of crises as the world's leading powers disengage from leadership roles in long-term development and preventive diplomacy.