Foreign Policy as Domestic Discipline and Control

Abstract

This chapter lays out a theory of how the effects of foreign policy can be understood not only between countries but also within countries. The first section highlights the limits and silences of traditional accounts of foreign policy when understood according to an ‘either foreign or domestic’ conception of global politics. This either/or conception of politics is grounded in the dichotomised understanding of sovereignty detailed in Chapter 1. Creating foreign policy within the confines of an ‘either/or’ mentality, where political space is either foreign or domestic, not only ensures that foreign policy takes on a bridging or protecting role, but continually affirms its function as a specific instrumental tool within orthodox IR. In doing so, foreign policy practice perpetuates this potent figuration of IR.