Domestic Legitimacy Research Articles

‘Everything is fine in India’: crafting emotional proximity among the Indian diasporas

ABSTRACT The relationship between states and the diaspora represents an important transformation from the focus on state, territoriality, and sovereignty, especially due to the rise of populist regimes and the instruments used by them. Diaspora becomes one of the instruments to not only exercise influence in international politics but also gain domestic legitimacy for political projects, transnationalising politics and populism. This paper elucidates the ways in which the current Indian government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has made efforts to craft proximity with the Indian diaspora in the USA, UK and Australia. We specifically focus on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Howdy, Modi! rally in 2019 in Houston Texas to illustrate the crafting of emotional proximity to the homeland, through a discourse focusing on aspirational pride. We place these populist narratives within the framework of an aspirational state, that is built on the politics of vishwas or trust, rather than empirical reality. By looking at how proponents of Hindu nationalism, shape the Indian diaspora’s emotional linkages to the homeland, the study illuminates the complex ways in which transnational emotional proximity is constructed across borders.

Postage Stamps as Political and Religious Propaganda: The Case of Hamas

The article, “Postage Stamps as Political and Religious Propaganda: The Case of Hamas,” analyzes the use of postage stamps by Hamas between 2009 and 2019 as a medium for disseminating political, religious, and nationalist messages. After assuming control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas issued 148 stamps, utilizing them to assert its legitimacy, promote resistance to Israel, and shape a Palestinian historical narrative. Although these stamps were not recognized by the Universal Postal Union, they served as an important communication tool within Gaza. The study reveals that over half of the stamps focus on themes related to the national struggle, including martyrdom, military operations, and Palestinian unity. Additionally, religious symbols, particularly those related to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and international commemorative events are prominent features. The findings suggest that stamps were strategically employed by Hamas to strengthen its role in the Palestinian struggle and to enhance its domestic legitimacy. The article concludes by proposing further comparative research between the stamps of Hamas and those issued by other non-recognized entities, while also addressing the potential influence of the 2023 Gaza conflict on future stamp issuance.

Do Autocrats Need a Foreign Enemy? Evidence from Fortress Russia

Abstract Conventional thinking suggests that autocrats need enemies and thus have incentives to create them. Russia's Vladimir Putin is often thought to reap domestic legitimacy from belligerence. We examine multiple public opinion datasets collected in Russia that span Putin's presidency to confirm that he gains popularity from a sense of Western threat. But findings indicate that until 2021, these gains came primarily from a carefully cultivated domestic reputation for responding to threats with moderation instead of bellicosity. Our survey experiment further suggests that Putin wins as much support when he is prudent and cooperative as when he is hostile and aggressive. These findings add to evidence that Russia's full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine was not a war of domestic political necessity. They also help explain why Putin felt that he had to promote the invasion at home as a careful, limited, defensive act rather than something glorious for which the Russian population should fully mobilize. Even the most aggressive autocrats may still cater to public preferences for moderate foreign policy.

Opportunities and Challenges of China’s Economic and Political Development Under the Third Term of Xi Leadership: A Viewpoint of Malaysia

In the face of severe internal economic challenges and rising hostile geopolitical landscape, Xi Jinping’s unprecedented third term has garnered much attention as the way in which these challenges are addressed will not only impact China’s internal governance on development issues but also its foreign policy and strategy. The paper attempts to examine the implications of Xi’s strategy and policy—from its stated goals to actions and outcomes—for Malaysia with respect to opportunities and challenges and its strategic response. The analysis benefits from the insights from the international political economy, which explores how the apparent weak unity government under Anwar Ibrahim’s administration amid tough domestic challenges and rising hostile geopolitical environment strives to reconcile the imperative of its domestic legitimation to prioritize immediate economic benefits over potential security concerns. Despite the reinvigorating Malaysia-China relations has brought tangible results, paving the way for more mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities and partnerships, the external pressure caused Malaysia under Anwar’s administration to maintain Malaysia’s hedging under uncertainties in structural conditions rather than balancing or bandwagoning. Malaysia’s inclination to hedge is against the various risks associated with the uncertainty inherent in US-China rivalry—e.g. uncertainty in the future of Sino-American relations, uncertainty in Xi Jinping’s long-term strategic goals, uncertainty surrounding China’s slowing economy, diffuse threats, and uncertain reliable and sustainable allied supports. The recent rapid expansion of China’s investment in the country to avoid tariffs imposed by the US on certain products of China could be a double-edged sword. While smaller power like Malaysia with heavy economic dependence on China and the US will confront greater external constraints to maintain strategic ambiguity and keep its strategic options open, managing tradeoffs in foreign policy choices continues to be driven and constrained by the imperative of elite’s domestic legitimation embedded in the state-market-society interactions.

Turkey’s approach to the Arab spring revisited: political field and foreign policy in the AKP era

ABSTRACT Drawing from Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, this article sheds light on the relationship between the AKP’s foreign policy toward the Middle East and its twenty-year rule in Turkey. It argues that Turkish foreign policy can be understood by looking at the evolving strategies adopted by AKP in the political field. In the early 2010s, the AKP emphasized conservative social values, neo-liberal reformism, and support for the Arab Spring to accumulate political capital. However, as the expected regional change did not materialize, and as domestic legitimacy eroded, the party has resorted to an increasingly nationalist discourse to preserve its dominant position.

The Commonwealth and Southern African Decolonization 1949–1994

This article addresses the role of the Commonwealth, a unique post-colonial association, in the protracted process of decolonisation in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines the ways in which Commonwealth leaders sought to use the association to enhance their national diplomacy and policy stance on African self-determination: to pressure the British government to adopt more robust policies such as economic sanctions, and to use Common-wealth meetings as a diplomatic forum to coordinate and publicise their stance on decolonisation to their home constituencies, enhancing their domestic legitimacy. The article also addresses the ways in which the Commonwealth evolved in the process of British disengagement from empire, developing a separate identity, political leadership and an international secretariat; and its place in the global struggle against white minority regimes in Southern Rhodesia, Namibia/South West Africa and South Africa.

From Positive to Negative Historical Statecraft: The Shifting Use of History in China’s Diplomacy

Abstract Typically, China has tried to use positive aspects of its history, such as its previous grandeur and its philosophical and cultural heritage, to guide its diplomatic strategic narratives – a kind of historical statecraft. However, this has largely failed to inspire international audiences. Analysis of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ regular press conferences over a twenty-year period reveals there is an observable seeping of more negative aspects of history into China’s diplomatic language during Xi Jinping’s second term. Negative history appears in China’s strategic narratives to highlight changes in the international order by reframing understandings of China and the nature of other major powers. Negative history of this type might afford Xi significant domestic legitimacy, as well as some international supporters, for its assertive articulations; at the same time, however, it reduces China’s ability to win over international audiences and positively disseminate its vision of international order.

Neo-pan-Arabism: a renewed contract of legitimacy in the Maghreb

After various setbacks, the latest being the Arab uprisings of 2011, pan-Arabism has made a return starting in the second decade of the 21st century, but in the shape of neo-pan-Arabism. Thus, neo-pan-Arabism would appear to be the legitimate heir of pan-Arabism. Unlike the former, however, it does not appear to be an ideology, but rather a mere tool of Arab regimes to legitimise their control over their populations. Neo-pan-Arabism, then, seems to be a populist rhetoric, with limited action on the ground and aimed primarily at domestic audiences. The cases of Algeria and Tunisia – two countries outside the traditional pan-Arab nucleus –, presented through the actions and words of their respective leaders, illustrate how regimes are using neo-pan-Arabism for their domestic legitimation.

Initiative Diplomacy: China’s New Rules for Global Governance, Security and Development

Since 2022, Chinese officials have embarked on an international mobilisation campaign to promote China’s new Global Security Initiative (GSI), Global Development Initiative (GDI) and Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI). The three new initiatives espouse China’s principles of global governance, security and development in order to reinforce the domestic legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, reform the global governance system, expand China’s international influence, especially in the developing world, and compete with the United States’ conception of the liberal rules-based international order.

The geopolitics of outbound travel: Theorizing outgoing tourism as state strategy

There has been a general bias in tourism research toward the politics of the destination country, neglecting the theoretical importance of state policies at source countries in influencing tourism flows. In most studies of international travel, political action is essentially ensconced on the destination side, as governments and other authorities, competing in broader markets, attempt to make destinations attractive for potential visitors. Overlooked is the fact that source states influence tourist routes and behavior, changing the volume, composition, timing, and targets of foreign travel. In redressing these gaps, this paper will present a theory of outgoing travel from a nation-state perspective. I present a typology of theoretical connections between regulating outgoing travel and state strategies of domestic legitimation and foreign policy. Finally, I use this theoretical framework to investigate the specific case of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), to determine to what degree the Chinese central state makes use of outgoing tourism to achieve policy objectives.

The Role of Narratives for Gaining Domestic Political Legitimacy: China’s Image Management during COVID-19

Crises constitute ideal opportunities for authoritarian leaders to promote certain narratives, shaping reality in their favor and crafting their own preferred storylines about current events. In other words: they serve authoritarian leaders on a silver platter the opportunity to instrumentalize these unforeseen circumstances to gain domestic political legitimacy by promoting strategic narratives. The COVID-19 pandemic was no exception in this regard. Ever since its onset in early 2020, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was among the most active actors worldwide seeking to capitalize on the global crisis for legitimation purposes. Whether applying narratives of governance supremacy, portraying the People’s Republic of China as a “global savior,” or promoting emotionally appealing nationalistic narratives, the regime used the pandemic as a window of opportunity to rebrand its international role and enhance its domestic legitimacy. When observing the CCP’s communication style over the course of 24 pandemic months (2020–2022), however, major shifts become apparent regarding the main narratives crafted in communication with national audiences. Based on this, the paper focuses on the role of such narratives for legitimation claims. Using exemplary media articles collected between the outbreak of the pandemic in China in late 2019 until the harsh Shanghai lockdown in spring 2022, it thus traces the narratives employed by Chinese state elites and explores how they are intertwined with nationalism and broader power claims.

The Role of Discursive Practices in Public Diplomacy and International Relations: The Case of Russia–Japan Relations

Utilising discourse analysis to evaluate Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov’s public speeches as part of public diplomacy, this study deconstructs the discursive practices of Russian political elites in Russia–Japan relations. The data analysis demonstrates that, when speaking from a position of power, Putin and Lavrov delegitimise Japan’s political decision-making sovereignty and the role of the Japanese public in the negotiation process. This article argues that even though the discursive practices of Russian political elites are oriented towards a foreign public, the impact on their domestic legitimacy is greater.

The asymmetry between domestic and global legitimacy

ABSTRACT There are two bodies of literature, one offering theories of the legitimacy of domestic institutions like states, another offering theories of the legitimacy of international institutions like the IMF. Accounts of domestic legitimacy stress the importance of democratic procedure, while few to no theorists make democracy a necessary condition for the legitimacy of international institutions. In this paper, I ask whether this asymmetry can be defended. Is there a unified higher-order theory which can explain why legitimacy requires democracy in the domestic context, but not in the international context? I argue that no proceduralist higher-order theory succeeds, and that we need to look for other solutions.

Generating instability? The impact of the EU's hybrid migration governance in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan

AbstractThis article analyses the migration agreements between the European Union (EU) and Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. These international policy frameworks were negotiated in tandem with one another, and all were announced in 2016. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in the three countries, the article argues that they fuse humanitarian elements with a bloc‐based security logic in an ad‐hoc mix that lacks substantive legitimacy in the three states, rendering the frameworks unstable. The article introduces the idea of hybrid migration governance which we have developed inductively to conceptualise the empirical findings from our fieldwork, building on existing work on hybridity in the conflict and security studies literature and Nora Stel's conception of governance as the ability to shape the field of action of others. In our usage, hybrid migration governance refers to the efficacy of EU intervention in the institutional management of migration in the three case study countries (‘shaping the field of action’), the ‘frozen’ character of the societal relations formed through this process and their underlying lack of domestic legitimacy. In conclusion, we argue that hybrid migration governance poses problem for the EU's ‘Barcelona’ conception of human security, because rather than expanding the bloc's ‘zone of security’ to the international neighbourhood, these policies have generated downstream security‐risks.

Mobilizing patriotic consumers: China’s new strategy of economic coercion

ABSTRACT This article develops the concept of ‘patriotic consumer mobilization’ to explain how China uses informal boycotts as economic coercion. Patriotic consumer mobilization employs citizens as the unit of action, facilitating manipulability, uncertainty, and plausible deniability. It manages public sentiment for domestic legitimacy and foreign policy goals. Citizens are mobilized via propaganda that underscores national humiliation, frames boycotts as grassroots patriotism, and signals resolve to foreign countries. After outlining conditions for use and a case comparison with Taiwan, we draw on Chinese-language sources to examine Beijing’s coercion of South Korea over a missile defense system.

Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics Of Malaysia-China Relations

This article examines the trends and dynamics of Malaysia-China relations, with emphasis on the post-Cold War era and beyond. More specifically, it explicates the interplay of external and domestic dynamics that have defined Malaysia’s China policy amid shifting regional strategic and domestic political milieu. This article contends that Malaysia’s “hedging” policy vis-à-vis China has been primarily shaped by the country’s ruling-elite’s perceptions of its external conditions in the context of East Asia’s evolving power dynamics, tempered by their domestic political expediency. It further argues that despite the periodical recalibrations having given the impression of policy-shifts, they have not fundamentally altered Malaysia’s China policy-approach. Instead, continuity rather than change has been the hallmark, since the “structural conditionalities” driving and constraining Malaysia’s relations with China continue to be informed by Malaysian rulingelite’s domestic political considerations, as they strive to optimise as much the country’s external interests, as to consolidate their domestic legitimacy. The findings inform Putrajaya’s persistence on “light-hedging” as the optimal policyoption, when dealing with Beijing, to advance Malaysia’s national survival and interests as a “smaller-state”, amid the evolving regional geopolitics, shaped by power asymmetry, rivalry and uncertainty.

A River Runs through It: The Elbe, Socialist Security, and East Germany's Borders

AbstractThis article traces the course of the Elbe River from Czechoslovakia through the German Democratic Republic (GDR) into the Federal Republic, where it flows into the North Sea. As the GDR's main water artery, the Elbe's border crossings became a site of security concern for the GDR. Traversing the GDR's border with fellow communist state Czechoslovakia as well as its rival West German state, the river linked the GDR to a larger ecological system as well as transnational sociopolitical dynamics. These connections illuminated the GDR's crucial position in central Europe and beyond. Yet the Elbe also presented challenges for the GDR in terms of controlling information, people, and pollution that streamed into—and out of—the country. The river thus was a precious and contested resource that revealed the communist dictatorship's limited ability to control nature, humans, or interactions between the two. Ultimately, the Elbe's border crossings were a site of transnational and global connection that called into question the GDR's domestic legitimacy and international standing.

The antecedents of MNC political risk and uncertainty under right-wing populist governments

AbstractRight-wing populist parties who obtain governmental power rely on ethno-nationalist mobilization for domestic legitimacy. They may therefore adopt policies that explicitly seek to disadvantage foreign multinational corporations (MNCs). Understanding what factors increase a foreign MNC’s exposure to adverse action by right-wing populists is an understudied question in the field of international business policy. We investigate this question in post-socialist member states of the European Union, which constitute extreme cases of right-wing populist government power. As such, they constitute a fertile ground to further our theoretical understanding of the distinction between calculable political risk and incalculable political uncertainty. Through a case study-based theory-building approach, which draws on existing literature and interview data, we derive a series of propositions and develop a research agenda. We identify factors at the country-, sector-, and firm-level that influence exposure to adverse policy action by host-country governments. We explore when political risk may turn into political uncertainty and provide suggestions to foreign MNCs operating in right-wing populist contexts on how to reduce this uncertainty. Our study provides insights for policy makers too, who should be aware of the impact political shifts towards right-wing populist governments have on political uncertainty for foreign companies.

International Organisations as Status Enhancers: The Case of the Czech Republic

In 2015 and 2017 the Czech Republic adopted two strategic documents that were aimed to support Czech nationals in positions within international organisations (IOs). In this article, we explore the rationale of the Czech government in doing so. Considering the Czech Republic as a small state, we approached the question from the perspective of status-seeking and observed the mechanisms of personnel support in selected IOs. We argue that the policy of promoting nationals in the ranks of prioritised IOs was intended to enhance the country’s international status and also formed part of domestic legitimation games.

‘Seizing the Window of Strategic Opportunity’: A Study of China’s Macro–Strategic Narrative since the 21st Century

Since the turn of the 21st century, China has leveraged the international environment in its favour to achieve a spectacularly rapid rise, a success that Chinese strategic policymakers attribute in part to ‘seizing the strategic window of opportunity’. How has China perceived the international environment and shaped the narrative of its macro-strategy? What impact has it had on China and the world? The article explores the evolution of the strategic narrative of the ‘window of opportunity’ in three stages since the 21st century and explores its impact in terms of quantity and keyword mapping by analysing the narrative texts of China’s ‘discourse coalition’ (government, official media and intellectual elites). The study found that China’s macro-strategic narrative is primarily driven by the official political and semi-official intellectual elites and places a premium on domestic political persuasion rather than external displays of strategic intent. It combines classical and modern philosophical thinking and methodology with the two core objectives of ‘maintaining peace’ and an ‘economic priority’. Over 20 years, the trend of narrative production of the ‘strategic opportunity period’ has shown a concentrated emergence and fluctuating decline, and its narrative elements have been enriched, interlinked and aligned with the narrative of the CPC’s core policies. The narrative of the ‘strategic opportunity period’ has been a powerful force in building domestic legitimacy, guaranteeing partial fulfilment of strategic objectives and offering lessons for other countries to learn from. Inevitably, the narrative faces a number of dilemmas and challenges.