The purpose of the article is to answer the question about the challenges facing theoretical studies in foreign policy developed in Poland, which look for causative factors at the national level. The text consists of five parts. The first indicates the review papers regarding this type of theories published in the 21st century. Subsequently, the history of the development of global research in this field was presented. Part three discusses the contemporary challenges facing this type of study. In the following part, the history of this type of studies in Poland was presented. Finally, against the comparative background outlined in such a way, the challenges facing Polish science were pointed out. The article has the form of the review of literature based on the comparative case study strategy. The method of data acquisition was the qualitative text analysis. The source database constituted English-language publications from the USA and Western Europe, as well as works published in Polish.