Foreign Policy Discourse Research Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue: Recasting Soft Power for the Indo‐Pacific

Soft power and its associated practice of public diplomacy have gained prominence in foreign policy discourse and in Ministries of Foreign Affairs around the globe. These concepts receive considerable scholarly attention today. Yet discourse continues to be dominated by European and American frameworks and experiences. Remarkably, there is little interrogation of how soft power and public diplomacy are evolving to find relevance in alternative contexts. As a result, persistent gaps constrain theoretical and practical frameworks underpinning the field. This article sets the scene for the Special Issue on soft power and public diplomacy in the Indian Ocean‐Asia Pacific (Indo‐Pacific) region. It introduces the Indo‐Pacific as the geographic backdrop for the issue, to reveal enduring features, themes, and complexities that shape the current and future relevance of soft power within it. Conclusions highlight the future and underexplored potential of the region's transnational and digital networks.

Debating New Zealand’s foreign relations: the role and impact of the University of Otago Foreign Policy School 1966–1976

ABSTRACTFor over half a century, the internationally recognised University of Otago Foreign Policy School has annually drawn together a mix of government officials, diplomats, academics, students and members of the general public to discuss issues of international significance. This article considers the establishment of the Foreign Policy School, and analyses its impact on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy between 1966 and 1976. Michelle Hale Williams’ conceptual model is employed to assess the School’s influence on public and political debate. It is argued the School’s influence was directly and most clearly evident at what Williams defines as the agendas and institutional levels. There was a gradual but definite shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy outlook between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, which is reflected in questions raised and discussed by the School. Public engagement with foreign policy questions, in which the School played an enabling role, was also transformed in the course of this period. The School rapidly became an important forum for foreign policy discussions between groups that had previously had little interaction. This article shows that, while it generated few concrete results at the level of policy, the School certainly played a part in helping to foster a national world-view that was increasingly based on New Zealand values and interests, paving the way for the emergence of a more independent foreign policy.

Constructing the West in Russian Foreign Policy Discourse: Political Actors and Strategies of Representations

Constructing the West in Russian Foreign Policy Discourse: Political Actors and Strategies of Representations

The Soft Power of a Small State: Discursive Constructions and Institutional Practices of Norway's Peace Engagement

Since the end of the Cold War, Norway has widely functioned as facilitator for conflict resolution in interstate conflicts and, thus, constructed Norwegian foreign policy as an international peace promoter. This article provides a critical understanding of the discursive construction and institutional practices of Norwegian peace engagement and the effectiveness of the Norwegian approach in conflict resolution experiences. By utilising valuable insights from international relations theories, this article critically analyses the construction of identity and interests in Norwegian foreign policy discourse, focusing particularly on the balancing act between realist and idealist internationalism in peace engagement.

Before the vote: UK foreign policy discourse on Syria 2011–13

AbstractThe literature of recent UK policy toward Syria focuses on the 2013 chemical weapons crisis. We examine policy discourses leading up to that. The government supported the removal of Assad but faced the challenge of explaining how that would be realised. Given its unwillingness and inability to mobilise support for military intervention, or to tailor policy goals to match available means, government strategy arguably lacked credibility. Our purpose is to examine how the government tried to close this ends means gap and how, having failed to do that, its ‘discursive strategy’ legitimised its approach. We argue the resources for the government’s discursive strategy on Syria can be found in the earlier articulation of ‘liberal conservatism’. A policy that from an ideal-liberal or ideal-conservative position might have been criticised as half-baked was maintained by a strategy that gave consideration to, but did not completely follow through on, either archetype. Drawing on an analysis of 2,152 sources and supplemented by elite interviews, we illustrate how this strategy managed the interplay of two basic discourses: a liberal insistence that the UK should support ‘the Arab Spring’ and a conservative insistence that military intervention was imprudent because ‘Syria was not Libya’.

Introduction: The ‘graduation dilemma’ in foreign policy: Brazil at a watershed

Brazil attracted international attention in the early 2000s as a promising emerging market, a rising power with increasing international leverage, and a key player (potentially, a leader) in international organizations and blocs. High expectations were set in the largest Latin American country, partly encouraged by the popularity of the then president, ‘Lula’ da Silva, who fostered international activism and longstanding regional and global ambitions. At the same time, as Soares de Lima and Hirst argue,1 efforts both to acquire greater international influence and to improve the country's record on poverty, inequality and political participation became facets of the same process. International expectations remained very high at the beginning of the current decade. However, the global economic crisis, shortcomings in the multilateral system, the falling of global commodity prices, slow national economic growth, corruption scandals, and social protests during Dilma Rousseff's interrupted administration (2011–2016) have cast serious doubts on those initial very positive forecasts.2 To date, it is not clear whether Brazil has been able to reconcile domestic practice and international foreign policy discourse and ambitions in difficult times; or, more concretely, whether and how, despite domestic instability and contestation, Brazil is currently able to effectively influence international negotiations and global governance mechanisms.

21st Century and Pakistan’s New Narrative for National Stability

Throughout the course of history, states and non-state actors have developed themes, values and ideas to promote their visions. Such deliberate and well-constructed ideologies are termed as narratives either to face the challenges or to run a rules-based national and international system while looking their goals and power apparatus. A national narrative is constructed in a way that identity, history, ideology, geography, culture, foreign policy and other national discourses become components of it. Pakistan, since its independence in 1947, has been in search of a comprehensive narrative that should suit the fabric of the state. The existing narrative has been unresponsive to the needs of people and becomes outdated for several reasons. A new narrative for identity construction, political maturity, educational growth, strong security, economic prosperity, good governance, religious reorientation, innovative skills, media maturity and ethnic unity is required which can establish a new societal architecture for a strong and resilient state and society. Building of such a new narrative is a strategic imperative which could bring national stability in Pakistan in the 21st century.

Democratic peace as global errand

AbstractFocusing on the foreign policy discourse of George H. W. Bush and William Clinton, I examine the role the American jeremiad played in conceptualizing the geopolitical change initiated by the ending of the Cold War. I identify “extending the democratic peace” as the nation’s post-Cold War “errand” and argue that this global mission represented the contemporary “re-dedication” of American policy to the nation’s “divine cause.” I demonstrate that a key issue facing the nation was whether the U.S. would reap the benefits of its Cold War victory by extending its political-economic system globally or whether it would turn inward and, thereby, give rein of the future to the forces of “anarchy” and chaos.” As with earlier renditions of the jeremiad, the post-Cold War variant turned this liminal moment into a “mode of socialization” (Bercovitch 2012, 25) by deploying the concept of democratic peace to legitimate an interventionist foreign policy.

Understanding Putin: The politics of identity and geopolitics in Russian foreign policy discourse

Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the subsequent deterioration in its relations with the West have led many analysts to adopt a narrow view of Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy motivations, chalking them up to old-school geopolitics. This paper makes the case that the traditional structural explanations for Russian foreign policy that are dominant within the discipline of international relations do not adequately consider the influence of identity in Putin’s emerging foreign policy narrative. Putin’s narrative is shaped by, and shapes, a discourse about cultural and historical ties with Russian borderlands, as well as by the cultural and security vulnerabilities generated by the West’s treatment of Russia, evidenced by the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This discourse has underscored a more militant foreign policy turn under Putin in which he is prepared to protect and defend Russia’s interests at high cost; Russia’s actions in Crimea exemplify this. This connection between identity and foreign policy in Putin’s Russia demands attention if we hope to gain a better grasp of Russian foreign policy under his leadership.

Стратегии положительно-оценочной репрезентации российско-итальянских отношений в российском внешнеполитическом дискурсе (на материале сайта МИД РФ)

The paper focuses on discursive construction of international relations in foreign policy discourse. The author uses the data retrieved from the Russian Foreign Ministry website to define the strategies of positive representation of Russian-Italian relations and reveal linguistic resources employed for the purpose. The strategies include the following: strategy of positive evaluation, strategy of legitimizing the partnering actor’s negative characteristics, strategy of positive forecast, strategy of involvement, strategy of demonstrating similarity of problems or views, strategy of indicating the legitimacy of relations and activities, and strategy of positive emotionalisation. The author demonstrates that strategies that represent a partnering actor are actualised in different genres of foreign policy discourse, which assists in constructing a consistent picture of Russian-Italian relations. The author claims that numerous strategies of positive representation are a convincing proof that foreign policy practices demand not only strategies that perform a conflictual function. Strategies that are aimed at harmonizing relations, constructing partnerships and grouping political actors are also in demand in international relations.

Broadening the Contestation of Norms in International Relations

Broadening the Contestation of Norms in International Relations

Geopolitičko pozicioniranje EU u multipolarnom svetu i njegov uticaj na strateška opredeljenja Republike Srbije

Diverse strategic interests of the Anglo-Saxon countries, Central Europe, Eurasia, the seaborne empires (thalassocracy) and the land forces (tellurocracy) have intertwined and confronted in Europe for centuries. They exist in the form of the most important geopolitical concepts: Atlanticism, (Central European) Continentalism and Eurasianism. Although after the Second World War relations of these concepts created the character of the European integration and set it on the route, geopolitical aspects were neglected. The internal aspects of this phenomenon have been considered from the position of the European people's aspiration towards reconciliation, collaboration and common prosperity, whereas the foreign policy aspects have been considered exclusively from the position of the ideological confrontation of the two superpowers and their allies. The turning points of world politics during the period between two millennia - the collapse of the bipolar (ideological) world, the appearance of American hegemony, the process of creating a multipolar world, and the possibility of the European Union (EU) disintegration process have demanded a return to the international scene of geopolitical consideration of the EU integration background and its perspectives. During the Cold War period, along with the economic integration of European countries, their integration process within the North Atlantic Alliance, in which the United States played the key role, was also under way. Thus, since the end of the Second World War, the military and foreign policy discourse of the Western European countries has won the dominant Atlantic (thalassocratic) connotation. However, at the beginning of the new millennium, the EU faced significant (geo) political issues such as: firstly, survival or its disintegration, and, secondly, in the case of survival, possible directions of the Union geopolitical positioning as a result of the impact of the relation between the mentioned geopolitical concepts. From the standpoint of the Republic of Serbia, as a small country with an extremely sensitive geopolitical position and a clear commitment to the European future, consideration of these issues is fundamental to (re)defining its long-term strategic commitments. .

Stages and new conceptual tools for legitimizing military intervention

This paper delves into the problem of aggression in Turkish foreign-policy discourse on Syria which tries to legitimize a military operation. In order to understand how the policymaking preferences of a military operation are legitimized and promoted in governmental discourse, 166 governmental texts, from 2011 to 2013, are investigated in terms of the implementation of strategies proposed by several scholars (van Leeuwen and Wodak 1999; Reisigl and Wodak 2001, 2009; van Leeuwen 2007, 2008; Reyes 2011). The results show that the increasing willingness of the Turkish government to take military action in Syria is systematically operationalized in several stages within each type of legitimation strategy (van Leeuwen and Wodak 1999) to overcome international reluctance and provide support for a prospective conflict. At the end of the paper, the results are evaluated in light of recent political developments for a comprehensive understanding of the meaning and limits of the strategies implemented.

EVALUATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM IN RUSSIAN OFFICIAL DISCOURSE AND ACADEMIC ANALYSIS

The article draws a comparison between Russian official and expert foreign policy discourses, focusing on representations of the power balance and relations between major states as the defining features of international system. The author attempts to identify actual and potential contribution of academics in the Russian foreign policy thinking. Conceptual documents and programme statements of national leadership elevate the notion of 'polycentric world' as a value in itself, which guides national actions on international arena. Although, until the late 2000s its rise was perceived as a welcome, but remote prospect, since the U.S. failures in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as global financial crisis expectations regarding it construction increased. They are accompanied, however, by a more critical appraisal of the concept. The mainstream Russian expert community shares normative appreciation of the polycentric global system as an intrinsic good. It also nourishes expectations of its emergence with almost inevitable certainty. Most of the time, it does not take into account concerns incorporated in the Western IR theories, regarding destabilizing effect of competition between multiple centers of power. The article demonstrates that both Russian political leadership and expert community perceive polycentric system as an international 'great power concert', which is just one and relatively rare form of it. It requires not only virtual parity in capabilities of several players, but also the lack of serious disputes among them. Meanwhile, in the Russia academic community there is a place for a critical tradition, which associates current decentralization of the international system with its chaotization and weakening governance. In recent years this approach gains additional prominence. However, the Russian debates on global order lacks more elaborated discussion regarding sources of power in international system as well as explanation of the binding ties, which would facilitate creation of concert rather than competition among emerging powers.

Party system stability and conflict initiation

The study of interstate conflict has yielded a voluminous literature to date, yet much of the recent work has only just begun to underscore the importance of domestic factors in predicting conflict initiation in democracies. In short, some of these studies find that when electoral accountability is greater—measured in a variety of ways—interstate conflict becomes less likely. Despite this burgeoning literature, scholars have spent far less time analysing the role linkage institutions, such as stable party systems, have played in foreign policy discussions. To address this gap, we argue that in more stable party systems conflict initiation becomes less likely due to the greater accountability present in these systems. This conjecture is supported by the results of a time-series cross-sectional analysis of 48 democracies from 1978 to 2000 that uses multiple measures of conflict initiation and party system stability.

The construction of ‘geopolitical spaces’ in Russian foreign policy discourse before and after the Ukraine crisis

Focusing on discourses by the ruling elite, this article examines the construction of ‘geopolitical spaces’ in Russian foreign policy. Based on a critical geopolitical analysis, suggesting that territory, space and geographies are being actively (re)formulated by those in power, this article analyzes how policy-makers define and articulate the importance of a particular geographical region for their foreign policy. It analyzes how the three ‘geopolitical spaces’ – Eurasia, the Euro-Atlantic and the Asia-Pacific – are defined by Russia's political leaders and how each space fulfils a particular function for the pursuit of Russian interests abroad. In a second part, this article takes into account the events in and around Ukraine starting in late 2013 and analyzes how Russia's discourse toward the traditional ‘geopolitical spaces’ changed as a result. It is argued, that while Russia previously strived for membership in each of the three ‘geopolitical spaces’, the Ukraine crisis and its impact on Moscow's relation with the West led to a reorientation of Russia's geopolitical vision toward the East and most importantly toward Eurasia. The establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union was instrumental for the promotion of a new vision of wider Eurasian integration.

Home is Where You Make it? Gender and Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Strategic Vision in the Middle East

ABSTRACTThe Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) policymakers have aimed to position Turkey as the leader of the Middle East by assessing its soft power since they came to power. Drawing on Strategic Depth of Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister of Turkey, this article attempts to offer a critical constructivist, postcolonial and feminist analysis of Turkey’s recent foreign policy discourse in the region by showing how the myth of leadership is constitutive, and is constituted by Davutoğlu’s discourses on women/femininities and men/masculinities. The leadership is imagined by localising Enlightenment notions of masculinity through a re-reading of local traditions, namely Ottoman history and Islam. In doing so, Strategic Depth aims to feminise Turkey’s imagery without necessarily putting it out of the masculinity continuum. As such, Turkey mimics the West but differs from it so as to perpetuate a good masculinity over the people of the Middle East. Implicit in such an imagery, the text distinguishes itself from the competing self-perceptions (and masculinities) in the country, namely the Kemalist one. I further argue that this imagery underlies the recent hypermasculinisation of politics within and beyond the country when political elites feel threatened in the face of political crises.

Enabling ‘ambitious activism’: Davutoğlu’s vision of a new foreign policy identity for Turkey

ABSTRACTBuilding on the argument that a state’s history and location in the world are inherent parts of its foreign policy narrative which constitutes its identity, this article analyzes the spatial and temporal representations of Turkey in Ahmet Davutoğlu’s articulation of foreign policy. It employs a critical constructivist perspective and explores how these representations have shaped the identity of the country. It contends that Davutoğlu’s foreign policy vision for Turkey is an attempt to reconstruct the international role and responsibilities of Turkey through a transformed identity based on a reinterpretation of its historical heritage and geographic location. Further, it argues that Davutoglu’s foreign policy discourse depicts Turkey as the global representative, speaker and leader of a specific community of peoples, which in turn has enabled an ‘ambitious activism’ in Turkish foreign policy, which is distinct from the previous period’s proactive foreign policy.

Book Review: Ty Solomon, The Politics of Subjectivity in American Foreign Policy Discourses

Book Review: Ty Solomon, <i>The Politics of Subjectivity in American Foreign Policy Discourses</i>

The European Union’s Human Security Discourse: Conceptualization and Justification

Human security has been central to “normative power” Europe, hence it is worth asking whether its conceptualization in EU foreign policy and foreign policy discourse is normatively defensible. Important challenges for human security lie in determining how compelling principles can be conceptualized, justified, and practiced for particular missions, and in how these norms relate to the broader legitimacy of missions. After reviewing the human security discourse in the EU and the somewhat sparse normative critiques of it, this article focuses on two principles articulated in the relevant policy discourse: “legitimate political authority” and a “bottom-up” approach. The first requires local consent and support for human security missions, whilst the second requires that missions address the actual insecurities and needs important to beneficiaries. The argument is that this human security approach suffers two problems regarding norm justification and legitimacy. First, there is a tendency to conceptualize human security as an objective norm, whereas the concept only makes sense when understood subjectively through a discursive process between security providers and beneficiaries. These conceptual characteristics are elucidated by considering the debts of human security thinking to the “capabilities approach” to welfare and development. Second legitimizing human security intervention by consent is unhelpful, since what is actually needed is emerging and ongoing discursive political interaction and co-agency with local communities. Since the appropriate procedures for conceptualizing and for legitimizing human missions are procedurally related, adopting an interpretive and discursive approach to human security is recommended for EU security policy.