Foreign Policy Narrative Research Articles

Some aspects of China`s foreign policy securitization through the prism of geopolitical rivalry with the United States in the Asia-Pacific Region: main aspects and dynamics of relations

This article examines the format and dynamics of the strategic relationship between the United States and China, in the context of the Indo-Pacific strategy. Relations between the two countries have become an important and central element of the modern international security system. China’s geopolitical rise as a global superpower has generated a strategic response from the United States. China, within the framework of the emerging multipolar system, seeks to form an international order that is alternative to the American-led. In this regard, within the framework of the increased policy of rivalry between powers, the global geopolitical strategy of the United States focuses on China`s changing status as a regional power transforming to the status of a global, hegemonic stage. Appropriately, this requires the development of specific foreign policy narratives in relation to China, in particular, and the Asia-Pacific, in general. The rise of China and the strengthening of its military power has become an irreversible object of securitization by the United States and its regional allies and partners. The Trump administration has adopted the doctrine of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, which defines China as a revisionist power, and accordingly, based on this definition, a common US strategic line is built. The logic of realism forced the parties to accept the balance of power in their foreign policy calculations, where the parties act to restrain each other. Despite US efforts to contain China, China’s Indo-Pacific strategy is ambiguous. China is aware of its strategic limits within the Asia-Pacific, and therefore has chosen a different strategy. Under the influence of the logic of political realism, the format of relations between China and the United States moved from partnership to the stage of rivalry, which determines the modern strategic narratives between the two countries. Key words: USA, China, Asia-Pacific region, rebalancing, military security, diplomacy, India, Japan.

The Politics of Power Projection: The Pivot to Asia, Its Failure, and the Future of American Primacy

Abstract Why did the Obama administration's attempted pivot (or “rebalance”) to Asia fail? In this article, we argue that three interrelated domestic factors are to blame: hyper-partisanship in Washington, DC; the lack of a compelling foreign-policy narrative to make the pivot intelligible and attractive to a broad slice of the political class and domestic public; and the related failure to convince enough Americans that the pivot was necessary to boost their economic fortunes. These domestic stumbling blocks made it impossible for the Obama administration to invest US power assets toward a long-term programmatic endeavor in the Asia-Pacific. In making this argument about the domestic foundations of US power-projection, we improve upon existing explanations of the pivot's undoing that focus on international-level obstacles, problems with the pivot's design and implementation, or the unexpected election of Donald Trump as Obama's successor. We conclude by drawing implications for US power projection beyond the pivot and, indeed, beyond East Asia—suggesting that the US political system has become a weak foundation upon which to build any ambitious foreign-policy superstructure.

Chinese saviour? Narrative images of foreign countries in selected speeches of Czech politicians during the first wave of the coronavirus crisis

This paper deals with the foreign policy narratives of selected actors of Czech foreign policy. It focuses on narratives about all foreign countries mentioned by the examined actors during the initial phase of the problems related to COVID-19 in the Czech Republic (March 2020). The politicians (members of the government and the President) indicated their foreign policy ideas in specific narratives. The aim of the paper is to corroborate the thesis that in a crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, selected politicians used foreign policy narratives to communicate their foreign policy ideas. It seeks to contribute to the understanding of the role played by narratives in the formation of foreign policy ties, of the actual content of those narratives, and of the ways their meaning is constructed. Narrative analysis of metaphors is the paper’s research method. The paper finds that the politicians’ narratives focused on the People’s Republic of China in particular. Using a narrative set in the “backdrop” of a global pandemic, they highlighted positive metaphors about China’s role and character while setting back any criticism. Other countries of the world were not in the narrative focus, they were only metaphorically framed to a lesser extent and in various meanings. The politicians, therefore, used the crisis to articulate a foreign policy leaning towards China. The given narrative was, in a sense, a part of the foreign policy of the Czech Republic because it contributed to its discursive dimension.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ORIGIN OF MYTHS OF POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICAN FOREIGN POLICY

The foreign policy narrative of South Africa is strongly grounded in human rights issues, beginning with the transition from a racial segregation regime to a democracy. The worldwide notoriety of the apartheid South Africa case was one factor that overestimated the expectations of the role the country would play in the world after apartheid. Global circumstances also fostered this perception, due to the optimistic scenario of the post-Cold War world order. The release of Nelson Mandela and the collapse of apartheid became the perfect illustration of the victory of liberal ideas, democracy, and human rights. More than 20 years after the victory of Mandela and the first South African democratic elections, the criticism to the country's foreign policy on human rights is eminently informed by those origin myths, and it generates a variety of analytical distortions. The weight of expectations, coupled with the historical background that led the African National Congress (ANC) to power in South Africa, underestimated the traditional tensions of the relationship between sovereignty and human rights. Post-apartheid South Africa presented an iconic image of a new bastion for the defence of human rights in the post-Cold War world. The legacy of the miraculous transition in South Africa, though, seems to have a deeper influence on the role of the country as a mediator in African crises rather than in a liberal-oriented human rights approach. This is more evident in cases where the African agenda clashes with liberal conceptions of human rights, especially due to the politicisation of the international human rights regime.

Understanding Indonesia's role in the ‘ASEAN Outlook on the Indo‐Pacific’: A role theory approach

AbstractFollowing other regional powers, Indonesia announced its own interpretation of the Indo‐Pacific concept in 2018. Considering Indonesia's strategic position in the Indo‐Pacific, does this announcement indicate the prospects of a more active Indonesian role in the region? This article examines Indonesia's national role conception regarding the Indo‐Pacific concept. Drawing from the literature on role theory, particularly on role conception and role location, and by analysing foreign policy narratives espoused by dominant actors in the Indo‐Pacific region, this article finds Indonesia's articulation of the Indo‐Pacific concept as an example of role location within the new Indo‐Pacific structure, particularly in locating Indonesia's ‘middle power’ role. Dominant actors in the Indo‐Pacific have generally accepted Indonesia's Indo‐Pacific concept, which shows that Indonesia has managed to live up to expectations befitting of a middle power through its enactment of ‘regional leader’ and ‘bridge‐builder’ roles.

Guns to butter: sociotropic concerns and foreign policy preferences in Russia

ABSTRACT On the concept of “rally around the flag,” scholars often argue that by invoking the danger of external threats in times of economic hardship, leaders can rally the public around the government in a way that would otherwise be impossible. Alternative streams of literature suggest that a darkening economic reality (“butter”) may weaken the impact of patriotic euphoria (“guns”). I conducted an experimental survey to measure changes in foreign policy preferences among respondents exposed to negative economic primes in Russia. In line with the earlier findings on this topic, my analysis shows that participants who encounter negative economic primes report significantly less support for assertive foreign policy narratives. These results suggest that continuing economic strain may limit the Kremlin’s ability to divert public attention from internal problems through the use of assertive rhetoric.

Collective Memory and an Interpretative Approach

Contrary to the common understanding that collective memory functions as a driver for fostering domestic peace, stability, a common national identity, and serves as a cornerstone for the realisation of specific national goals, our aim is to show how collective memory is understood as a constitutive element of foreign policy narratives and how memory can influence foreign policy choices (Anderson, 1983; Gillis, 199 4; Hobsbawm and Ranger, 1983; Bodnar, 1992; Schudson, 1993; Dian, 2017). Building on the work of Müller (2002), Bell (2010), Langenbacher and Shain (2010), Resende and Budryte (2014), Dian (2017) and Bachleitner (2018), we will argue that Serbia’s foreign policy choice in 2013 to sign the agreement with Kosovo is best understood with the help of an interpretative approach to foreign policy, as this issue de facto reflected the continuation of the role of sacrifice within Serbian collective memory. A narrative of victimisation was used to efficiently bridge the ‘guilt’ and tie it to the notion of great powers’ intervention. This article also examines the paradox of Serbia’s endeavours to hold on to Kosovo by looking into how the struggle over the nation’s past provides the fundamental ideational background for contemporary foreign policy choices.

Silencing history: forgetting Italy’s past during the refugee crisis in Europe

Most scholarly analyses of memory politics investigate how historical events are remembered selectively in order to justify political choices. Recent research has shown that ‘silencing the past’, notably the omission of relevant historical events, is also an important aspect of memory politics. This article examines how Italian leaders silenced significant periods of Italy’s history during the refugee and migrant crisis in 2014–2018. Drawing on memory politics and postcolonial literature, the article argues that Italian foreign policy discourses are based on both historical oblivion and the long-standing myth of the ‘good Italian’. The myth negates the controversial aspects of Italy’s colonial experience and permeates the country’s self-perception as an international actor. Italian foreign policy narratives also silenced the highly relevant precedent of Italian migration abroad. The focus is on the public speeches of Italy’s main political actors, notably national ministers and the leaders of the largest parties in parliament.

The China-Italy Comprehensive Strategic Partnership: Overview and Pathways to Progress

2020, the year that the world was engulfed by the Covid-19 pandemic, was also the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Italy. The China-Italy comprehensive strategic partnership plays an important role in deepening China-EU cooperation, advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, and building a community with a shared future for humanity. China-Italy relations should be studied within the analytical framework of strategic partnership which has gained traction in China’s foreign policy narrative. Beijing’s pursuit of strategic partnerships aims at forging stable and enduring relations that are driven by common interests in a world of proliferating challenges and geopolitical uncertainties. While making steady progress, the partnership is also facing multi-dimensional challenges. China and Italy should strengthen strategic dialogue to build mutual trust and constantly improve their institutionalized cooperation. Economically, they should work out broader areas for collaboration and better manage their competition to achieve win-win results. At the level of people-to-people exchange, mutual understanding and trust should be enhanced to eliminate misconception and prejudice. At the regional level, the China-EU-Italy trilateral relationship should be consolidated to shield bilateral cooperation from the volatility of China-EU relations. In the global arena, China and Italy should also step up efforts to catalyze international financial reforms and address global challenges such as climate change, economic governance, and global public health emergencies by improving policy coordination and aligning global strategies.

Defending Cyberspace: Reexamining Security Metaphors in the Internet Era

Abstract This essay examines the image-schemas and metaphors that leaders and critics employ in international debates about the internet. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton delivered the first speech by a senior American official articulating a strategy for incorporating internet freedom into American foreign policy in 2010, but international leaders have been concerned with the implications of the internet since its inception. Situating Clinton’s speech in the history of internet governance, I employ security image-schemas first developed by Paul Chilton to demonstrate how policymakers employ the internet to reinforce realist foreign policy narratives. To support alternative conceptions of the internet, I propose a “space” image-schema drawing from the work of critical geographer Doreen Massey. While the internet is often depicted as a force for freedom, a more productive framework may be understanding its relationship with space.

Transnational identity claims, roles and strategic foreign policy narratives in the Middle East

The question of identity, not only framed within the context of the nation state, but also in terms of wider transnational identities, be they religious, ethnic or political, remains a key feature in the politics of the Middle East. Drawing on contributions from Foreign Policy Analysis and the concept of strategic narrative, this paper explores how identities beyond state borders are utilised as justification for a state’s foreign policy decisions. The states under investigation are Turkey and Iran. The paper shows how appeals to transnational identities have been used by each state in terms of their longer-term cultural diplomacy and ‘soft power’ initiatives, and then at the more immediate or ‘hard’ sense as seen in their recent, ongoing military engagements. It demonstrates how multiple and overlapping identities articulated at the transnational level serve as a vector in which to pursue strategic foreign policy narratives in each country’s perceived sphere of influence.

Guns to Butter: Sociotropic Concerns and Foreign Policy Preferences in Russia

Scholars on “rally ’round the flag” often argue that by invoking the danger of external threats in times of economic hardship, leaders can rally the public around the government in a way that would otherwise be impossible. Alternative streams of literature suggest that a darkening economic reality (“butter”) may weaken the impact of patriotic euphoria (“guns”). I conducted an experimental survey to measure changes in foreign policy preferences among respondents exposed to negative economic priors in Russia. In line with the earlier findings on this topic, my analysis shows that participants who encounter negative economic primes report significantly less support for assertive foreign policy narratives. These results suggest that continuing economic strain may limit the Kremlin’s ability to divert public attention from internal problems through the use of assertive rhetoric.

Global Britain and the Narrative of Empire

AbstractSince 2016, the UK government has outlined plans for ‘Global Britain’ as a framework for post‐Brexit foreign policy. Some criticise the idea as a vision of ‘Empire 2.0’, but it is rarely made clear exactly what form it takes or what its wider political implications are. This article argues that Global Britain constitutes not just an idea or a slogan, but a foreign policy narrative and, more specifically, the narrative of empire. Indeed, to appear reasonable its grand ambitions require pre‐existing knowledges of past imperial ‘successes’ and accepting images of empire among the British public. Yet Global Britain lacks efficacy: as a domestic rather than an international narrative, by being inherently regressive in its worldview, and for contradicting the preferences of international partners on which the UK heavily relies. These narrative flaws, it is argued, make Global Britain an actively problematic, rather than merely ineffective, component of UK foreign policy.

Geopolitical teleconnections: Diplomacy, events, and foreign policy

We know little about how diplomacies narrate events to sustain state presence. This paper tackles this deficit, examining how foreign policy narratives try to tame the material-affective excess of events by asserting the fictive identity of states. To do so, we extend posthuman approaches to diplomacy by blending assemblage thinking with insights from topology on events to develop the concept of geopolitical teleconnections. We define this as diplomatic attempts to manipulate material-affective intensities between assemblages by tethering these intensities and the events they generate to state-sanctioned geohistories and policy narratives. Geopolitical teleconnections thus have potentially profound influence in mapping posthuman events onto the spatiotemporalities of states. We explore the utility of teleconnections as a conceptual scaffold through the empirical case of Iceland's turbulent geopolitics following the 2008 financial crisis. Our analysis shows how, despite intense diplomatic efforts, material-affective intensities actualised events that continually threatened to exceed Icelandic foreign policy narratives. In doing so it reveals the state as a congeries of assemblages and past-present-emergent events in teleconnected space-time, with diplomacy furnishing one means of giving a sense of permanency to something profoundly unstable. Moreover, geopolitical teleconnections expose foreign policy as a complex co-mingling of human and posthuman agencies, forceful in that they unsettle diplomatic bodies and destabilise diplomatic subjectivities by suddenly collapsing multiple times and spaces. In this way, the swarming multiplicities of events make myriad connections between diplomatic bodies and the body politic of the state.

States Recognition in Foreign Policy: The Case of Sweden's Recognition of Palestine

AbstractThis article examines politics of states recognition. Despite the significance of the concept of recognition to international politics, only recently has international relations (IR) scholarship begun to appreciate its analytical value. How states employ their prerogatives to grant or withhold recognition has received less attention in IR. The article extends this discussion by shedding light on politics of recognition in contexts of contested states and territorial conflicts. It does so by scrutinizing Sweden's recognition of the Palestinian statehood in October 2014. The findings underline the importance of foreign policy and recognition narratives for explaining and critically evaluating recognition in such contexts; therefore, the analysis of foreign policy needs to be integrated more consistently into the study and theorization of the problem of contested states’ recognition.

Seeking strategic narrative alignment: the case of BRICS and Brazil on the issue of infrastructural development

Abstract This article explores the challenges of multilateral forums to form coherent ‘strategic narratives’ that align positively with foreign policy narratives of member states in a multi-stakeholder society. Specifically, it focuses on whether and how BRICS’s communication on the issue of infrastructural development is strategically aligned with Brazil’s foreign policy narrative towards Africa. The case study involves interview data from 2016 with non-state actors in Brazil. This empirical case highlights how narrative misalignment on the national and multilateral level results from a high degree of ambiguity in the narratives, their problematic relation to actual events, and faulty practices of ‘inclusive’ participation.

The EU’s Humanitarian Policy in Africa and Migration Crisis

The article considers the essence and peculiarities of realizing of human security in the EU external policy in general and specifically in Africa. The article reveals the principles of the EU interest in Africa as a focus of their humanitarian policy: phantoms of the collective memory of the political class of Western European countries, huge potential of resources and markets, migration and terrorist threat. It is argued that this policy is considered by the EU as its strategic foreign policy narrative, in the course of which the Union, while ensuring the security of the African continent, primarily realizes its own interests. Specific features of the interpretation of this narrative in official documents of Germany as a key member of the EU are specified. It is revealed that Germany aims to play a major role in shaping European policy towards the African continent, and the specificity of its approach is economic-centric, which distinguishes it from the EU’s general approach to Africa. The key question of the article is how is disinterested Germany’s role, despite its permeation with the spirit of liberal values as a supplier of human security to African countries. It is shown that the discrimination of refugees and migrants in migration flows in the EU emphasized the importance of the Union’s activities in ensuring human security in Africa. In accordance with its goal to become the leading actor of the EU policy on the continent, its role as a leader of the liberal world and the peculiarities of the consequences of the migration crisis for the political and party system of the country and the stability of the social state, Germany proposed the German “Marshall Plan” for Africa as a concretization of its humanitarian policy on the continent. The parameters of this Plan, its advantages and implementation difficulties are considered. It is concluded that the Germany’s approach to Africa, on the whole, indisputably contributes to the latter’s development. At the same time, it is to a large extent focused on solving the tasks of ensuring national security of Germany itself, promoting the interests of German business, creating new German “reserves” in Africa through the African partnership. In this bi-directional process there is no obvious contradiction, but the results of this process can become ambivalent.

Looking downward: ethics, foreign policy and the domestic politics of protection

This article examines the increasing prevalence of foreign policy commitments to the protection of distant strangers and the interaction this has with domestic political contexts. Although we do not live in a post-state cosmopolitan order, civilian protection practices appear premised in part on cosmopolitan-minded ethical obligations to help non-citizens in dire need. However, this seemingly expanded moral concern sits uneasily with the inconsistency in the translations of such ethical commitments into policy and into practice. Using the lens of recent British foreign policy, the article argues that in order to better understand the inconsistency in cosmopolitan-minded protective action in Western foreign policy, a downward gaze must be directed towards domestic contexts, intra-societal foundations and the increasingly nebulous state–society connections upon which cosmopolitan-minded foreign policy comes to rest. ‘Disaggregated’ forms of citizenship and exceptionally high levels of technological interconnectedness present a difficult intra-societal context within which to craft a unified ethical foreign policy narrative that resonates well with the diverse identity constituencies of which contemporary Western states are comprised.

President Trump’s Islamophobia and the Muslims: A Case Study in Crisis Communication

During his highly controversial presidential election campaign, President Trump successfully but bizarrely exploited anti-Muslim rhetoric, among other factors, to capture the White House. His post-election policy actions, particularly the executive order to ban Muslim entry into the US, first issued on January 27 and followed by a watereddown version on March 6, has also officially exposed his anti-Muslim biases creating a crisis in Muslim – US relations. This article presents President Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies in historical perspectives, comparing them to other great American narratives of the post-World War II period. It ends up making two important conclusions: first off, Trump’s anti-Muslim stand galvanized, and now keeps alive, his political support base of the white underclass Americans; and, secondly, although motivated by political needs, his anti-Muslim rhetoric contributes to an increasing divide between the Muslims worldwide and the non-Muslim racist and Islamophobic white Americans. Keywords: President Trump, anti-Muslim ban, Trumpism, American foreign policy narratives, ‘America First’, Israel – Palestine conflict, Iran – US nuclear deal.

The EU's Peace and Security Narrative: Views from EU Strategic Partners in Asia

AbstractThe EU has consistently struggled to forge a foreign policy narrative which promotes internal cohesion and supports the EU's efforts to exert international influence. The 2016 EU Global Strategy is the latest iteration of collective efforts to tie strategy and purpose to the EU's coherent identity in the world. This study compares the EU's strategic partners of peace and security with narratives about the EU held in the EU's strategic partners in Asia. Whilst we find reasonable coherence in the EU's projection of the international system and its role in it, its identity as an actor, and its response to policy issues on the ground, views from Asia largely contest these claims. This article employs a strategic narrative approach to conceptualize and empirically trace how the formation, projection and reception of EU narratives are part of broader circuits of communication through which EU might be recognized, legitimized and achieve influence.