This study explores the politeness strategies employed by characters in the film Shortcomings (2023), using Geoffrey Leech’s Grand Strategy of Politeness (GSP) framework. While politeness plays a crucial role in maintaining interpersonal relationships, it is often overlooked in daily interactions, especially in intercultural contexts. The film’s main character, Ben Tagawa, frequently exhibits impoliteness, highlighting the socio-pragmatic challenges of communication in diverse social settings. This study aims to address a gap in existing literature where GSP has not been widely applied to film discourse, particularly within intercultural communication. A qualitative content analysis was conducted, focusing on selected dialogues that showcase either politeness or its absence. Dialogues were purposively sampled based on their relevance to interpersonal dynamics and key emotional or conflict-driven scenes. The analyses were carried out manually, with data coded using Leech’s ten maxims to identify dominant strategies and patterns. Findings were discussed descriptively, with attention to how cultural norms and character roles shape linguistic choices. This study offers insights into the application of politeness theory in media texts, serving as a reference for scholars in pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and language education. It also aims to promote greater awareness of how politeness can enhance communication effectiveness in intercultural and social interactions.

The Al-Aqsa Flood Operation launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023, constituted a profound shock to regional stability, prompting questions about its strategic rationale given the anticipated severe Israeli retaliation. This article argues that the timing and execution of the operation are primarily explicable when situated within the escalating geopolitical competition and shifting alignments in the Middle East, particularly the drive toward Israeli–Arab normalization and the proposed India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC). From this perspective, Hamas’s attack can be analyzed as a calculated, albeit high-risk, intervention designed to disrupt these transformative regional projects, which were perceived by Hamas and its regional allies, notably Iran, as detrimental to their respective interests and the broader Palestinian cause. Applying a Neoclassical Realist framework, the analysis explores how a non-state actor, such as Hamas, responds to these evolving systemic and regional dynamics, driven by an assessment of threats and opportunities within this wider power contest. By focusing on these overarching regional interests and rivalries, this article seeks to explain the October 7 attacks as a critical juncture in the re-emerging multipolar competition, where Hamas’s actions, while rooted in the Palestinian context, were shaped and enabled by broader geopolitical currents aimed at challenging the US-led regional order and its associated diplomatic initiatives.

Richard Pipes, a prolific and influential historian of Russia, had a significantly greater impact as a Sovietologist. The purpose of this article is to distil Pipes’s recommendations to Western policymakers on how to deal with the Russians. It is based on a study of Pipes’s writings on the topic. He advocated combining social scientific and humanistic approaches, drawing on both “hard” data like polling and census results and “soft” data like literature and history, striving to understand the mindset of one’s opponents, and avoiding “mirror imaging”. Pipes viewed Russian political culture as fundamentally authoritarian with xenophobic tendencies; its political system was characterised by elite domination, unaccountability of officials, weak rule of law, and a propensity to militarism and expansionism. During the Soviet era, the ruling elite promoted international tension and instilled a fear of foreign threats. Countering Soviet expansionism required a comprehensive grand strategy that involved leveraging institutional memory, employing propaganda to substitute for a free press, applying economic pressure, and insisting on reciprocity. It was also important to reckon with Russian feelings and urge Russians to follow a Western path. Pipes argued that pressuring the USSR would prompt the Politburo to implement reforms. Reagan’s hard line contributed to the selection of Mikhail Gorbachev as Soviet leader, apparently vindicating this approach.

This paper proposes a Keynesian ‘fourth paradigm’ for American grand strategy to overcome the stalemate between realism, liberalism and constructivism in International Relations. Drawing on close reading of Keynes’s major works, contemporary IR scholarship and recent policy debates, the article combines intellectual history with analytical synthesis to reconstruct Keynes’s international thought and translate it into a coherent strategic framework for the United States in the twenty-first century. The analysis shows that a Keynesian paradigm re-embeds markets within social and political institutions, treats economic stability and full employment as preconditions for durable peace, foregrounds uncertainty and ‘animal spirits’ in state decision-making, and advances a model of managed multilateralism that constrains both surplus and deficit states; it also demonstrates how this perspective exposes and resists the ‘military-narrational complex’ that privileges dramatic war stories over prudential statecraft. The article further finds that a Keynesian grand strategy would orient US policy towards reform of global economic governance, construction of a new embedded liberalism at home and abroad, and a pragmatic, cooperative internationalism that prioritises economic statecraft and narrative scepticism over military dominance. These findings suggest that thinking more like Keynes could help American policymakers design a grand strategy that is both analytically richer and more practically suited to managing great-power rivalry, climate change, financial instability, and populist backlash in a turbulent world.

ABSTRACT From the outset of his first presidency, Donald Trump rejected the liberal-democratic teleology anchoring U.S. grand strategy in favour of a security-first approach. Rather than a clean break, this sharpened a dilemma for hegemonic powers: whether to seek stability by making secondary states politically similar or strategically safe. This ‘political regime dilemma’ drives U.S. foreign policy oscillations, particularly in democracy promotion. This article offers a structural explanation, arguing that when the international status quo is stable, hegemonic powers pursue long-term transformative goals like reshaping domestic orders. Conversely, when the status quo is challenged by strategic rivals, they prioritise short-term objectives, notably securing alignment or neutrality amid intensifying great power competition. The article tests this hypothesis through a diachronic comparison of U.S. administrations since 1993, showing how structural conditions shaped the prioritisation of democracy promotion within American grand strategy.

This paper provides an examination of the content of the Biden administration’s triad of national security documents (National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Nuclear Posture Review) and the context in which they were made. The paper’s application of Maria Henke’s four-part criteria to assess “best practice” in grand strategy - defining core strategic goals, identifying and analyzing strategic challenges, designing a coherent logic of action, and translating strategic ideas into coordinated policies – to these documents finds that the Biden administration failed to adequately prioritize the relative challenges posed by China and Russia and failed to elucidate a coherent logic of action through which to respond to those challenges.

This study examines relations between the Khazar Khaganate and the Byzantine Empire in medieval Eurasia through the lens of dynastic marriages, focusing on how political unions functioned as instruments of alliance-building, legitimacy, and long-term strategic coordination. Facing a persistent multi-front security environment—first shaped by rivalry with the Sasanians and later intensified by Arab expansion—Byzantium relied on diplomacy as a systematic complement to military power. The Khazars, controlling key transit corridors across the Caucasus and the northern Black Sea region, emerged as an indispensable balancing partner within Byzantine grand strategy. The alliance, which gained institutional form in the era of Heraclius, developed through reciprocal embassies, converging security priorities, and coordinated responses to shared threats. Over time, dynastic marriages elevated this cooperation from a pragmatic arrangement to a more binding framework of trust and political recognition. The marriage of Justinian II into the Khazar ruling milieu illustrates how marital diplomacy could provide protection and external support during exile and contested succession, while the union linking Constantine to a Khazar princess marked a symbolic apex of mutual confidence and strategic planning. Beyond immediate political utility, these marriages facilitated cultural transmission and strengthened dynastic representation within the imperial center. From the ninth century onward, shifting regional dynamics, Byzantine reorientation toward new steppe actors, and mounting pressures from Rus and Pecheneg forces contributed to the gradual decline of Khazar power and the loosening of the alliance. Nevertheless, dynastic marriages remained the most visible and consequential mechanism through which Byzantine–Khazar relations were consolidated and historically memorialized. Keywords: Byzantium, diplomacy, dynastic marriages, Khazar Khaganate, political alliances. JEL Codes: N40, N43, N45, F53.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the process of forming, adjusting and implementing the European Union “grand strategy”. These trends are being implemented in the context of rapid transformation of international relations. The research methodology is based on the specific historical analysis of the current stage of European integration, problem-chronological, structural-functional, comparative methods. The scientific novelty of the article is due to the approach to considering the existing contradictions between the needs of accepting new member states of the European Union and security risks for Europe, which arose as a result of the collapse of the post-bipolar security system. This creates new opportunities and risks. The conclusions note that the formation of the “grand strategy” should take place on an institutional basis. This basis is “eroded” by the dual model of national and transnational politics in the European Union. As a result, the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament are called upon to be institutional initiators of the formation of the “grand strategy”. Adjustments to the “grand strategy” are inspired by the national governments of the European Union member states and are carried out in the EU institutions through the mechanisms of ministerial meetings. In an ideal model, the implementation of the “grand strategy” of the European Union should be a consolidated result of the functioning of the national and supranational levels of EU policy. In real politics, at the stages of formation, adjustment and implementation, the “grand strategy” faces specific problems. These difficulties manifest themselves in both the EU common foreign policy and the EU common defense policy.

As a great power, the United States has played a central role in shaping the political, security, and economic dynamics of the Middle East. With the largest network of military bases in the region and leadership over an extensive alliance system, Washington has maintained a deep security commitment to the region. Consequently, regional stability and the balance of power have been closely tied to U.S. strategy and actions. For many scholars and analysts, however, the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq marked a turning point in U.S. grand strategy, suggesting a shift away from regional hegemony toward offshore balancing. This research asks: to what extent did the United States actually pursue offshore balancing in the Middle East between 2011 and 2015? Drawing on the core assumptions and principles of offshore balancing, the study examines U.S. responses to regional threats and challenges and its interactions with key allies. The findings show that offshore balancing was not pursued consistently during this period.

This study aims to analyze the development strategy of local-based tempeh products in MSMEs in Tanjung Tani Village, Prambon District, Nganjuk Regency. The focus of the research includes analyzing the internal and external conditions of the business and formulating strategies through the SWOT approach. The results showed that tempeh MSMEs have strengths in product quality and competitive prices, but face weaknesses in bookkeeping, digital marketing, and limited capital. Based on the Grand Strategy Matrix, MSMEs are in quadrant II, which indicates that development strategies need to be directed towards internal efficiency and adaptation to external challenges. Recommended strategies include utilizing local soybeans, improving HR skills, business legality, and product and packaging innovation. The analysis technique used in this research is descriptive qualitative analysis with the support of SWOT method, IFAS (Internal Factor Analysis Summary), EFAS (External Factor Analysis Summary), and Grand Strategy Matrix. Data were obtained through field observations, direct interviews with business actors, and distributing questionnaires to selected respondents. The IFAS and EFAS matrices were used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, which were then mapped in the Grand Strategy Matrix to determine the most appropriate development strategy direction for tempeh MSMEs in the study area.

This paper examines how China’s economic and political policies from 2007 to 2017 reinforced its position as a regional hegemon and how the Trump administration’s early Asia strategy attempted to counterbalance Beijing’s rise. Drawing on hegemonic stability theory, it analyzes three pillars of China’s economic ascent including (1) domestic reforms and WTO entry, (2) Renminbi internationalization, and (3) the Belt and Road Initiative as well as China’s political ascent including (1) grand strategy, (2) balance of power, and (3) liberal values and then assesses Washington’s response in terms of (1) diplomatic posture, (2) alliance management, and (3) maritime operations. The study finds that while China consolidated its economic leverage, the U.S. pivot under Trump was marked by rhetorical shifts, uneven alliance signaling, and sustained Freedom of Navigation Operations, reflecting both continuity and disruption in American grand strategy.

In recent years, amid the increasing polarization in American society, the United States has witnessed growing divergences between its key parties on virtually all domestic and foreign policy issues. However, this trend has barely affected U.S. space exploration programs, indicating a degree of continuity between administrations in this area and demonstrating a political consensus regarding its strategic importance, despite some minor interparty differences. To showcase this trend, this article compares the approaches to space policy during the terms of the Republican D. Trump and the Democrat J. Biden The first section examines their initiatives in this field within the context of the traditional narratives of the so-called ‘grand strategy’, such as the ‘American Dream’, ‘exceptionalism’, the ‘frontier’. The second section traces the continuity between D. Trump’s first term and the Biden administration in such areas of space policy as the exploration of the Moon and Mars, airspace traffic regulation, public-private partnership, and asteroid exploration. At the same time, the author indicates new features in the Biden administration’s approaches to the establishment of the U.S. Space Force, outer space demilitarization, and sectoral program implementation to combat climate change and achieve racial and gender diversity. The third section outlines the contours of D. Trump’s second administration’s new space policy. The author concludes that it is the U.S. self-identification as the sole superpower that has a decisive influence on the formation, coherence, and goal-setting of contemporary American space policy, which explains the phenomenon of strategic continuity between different administrations.

In recent years, Russian historiography on the colonial policies of the great powers during the interwar period has actively studied the strategy of the British Empire to preserve and strengthen control over dependent territories. The new monograph by S.G. Malkin, ‘Policing the Empire: Colonial control and the Britishmilitary thought during the Interbellum’, serves as a good example of this trend. The book provides a detailed analysis of the concepts for adapting the British colonial system to post-war realities. At the same time, the author notes that despite drawing on extensive literature and a broad source base, the monograph is rather a series of essays that do not claim to provide a comprehensive coverage of the subject. Nevertheless, the reviewer argues that the author managed not only to challenge the thesis, common to both the Russian and foreign historiography, about the effectiveness of the United Kingdom’s imperial policy after World War I, but also to formulate non-trivial thought-provoking conclusions on the theoretical and practical aspects of British colonial governance. Thus, reflecting on the military-theoretical foundations of British colonial policy in the interwar period, the author counterintuitively concludes that at the time the United Kingdom’s grand strategy was influenced by the ideas of C. von Clausewitz, despite the skeptical attitude of British politicians towards the latter. From a practical perspective, the author draws attention to the fact that Great Britain actively implemented counterinsurgency tactics and techniques in the fight against national liberation movements to preserve the imperial colonial system. The reviewer argues that the discourse analysis of doctrines and concepts aimed at consolidating the British colonial empire, carried out in the monograph, makes a significant contribution to Russian historiography on the issue and may be of interest to a wide range of readers, including academic researchers.

This study aims to analyze and formulate a competitive business strategy for PT. XYZ to enhance its corporate performance. The research employs a qualitative descriptive method with a quantitative approach. Primary data were obtained through FGDs and in-depth interviews with ten informants, while secondary data were sourced from literature and company reports. Data processing involved four interrelated methods: the IFE and EFE matrices to analyze internal and external factors, the SWOT, IE, and Grand Strategy matrices to determine alternative business strategies, and the QSPM method to establish strategic priorities. The findings indicate that PT. XYZ's strategies include affordable pricing, product variations, branding, and extensive distribution. Internal and external factor analysis resulted in IFE and EFE scores of 2.60, placing the company in the "Hold and Maintain" quadrant, with a focus on product development and market penetration. The grand strategy matrix positions the company in Quadrant 1, highlighting its potential to capitalize on opportunities through an aggressive business strategy. Competitive analysis identifies PT. Mandom Indonesia as the strongest competitor, with a score of 3.3. The SWOT analysis produced seven key competitive strategies, including optimizing machinery for product innovation, external collaboration, sales system integration, internal coaching, strengthening digital media presence, utilizing locally sourced materials with international quality standards, and adaptive planning for regulatory changes. The highest QSPM score (5.40) was achieved by the strategy of optimizing custom machinery for innovative and hard-to-replicate products. It is recommended to maintain the existing strategy, monitor performance, and continuously innovate.

Sweden's grand strategy: predicaments of a small liberal state in a hostile world

Storytelling and grand strategy in public diplomacy: A case study of the speeches of President Xi Jinping

Grand strategy wargames and 4X productions are often viewed as educational tools that develop logical thinking skills. In reality, however, they undermine the user’s critical thinking. They pursue contemporary political agendas under the guise of historical education. Grand strategy wargames promote narratives that benefit big capital, while their “historicity” reinforces current economic activities. An analysis of Europa Universalis IV, using the theoretical framework proposed by Immanuel Wallerstein, reveals how the development of capitalism is naturalized, social inequalities are normalized and violence is legitimized. Underneath the narrative of four centuries of history, the creators from the Paradox Development Studio are hiding the interests of the contemporary beneficiaries of capitalism.

ABSTRACT Future imaginaries shape the policy innovations that guide universities in their approaches to internationalisation. China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) represents a transformative grand strategy aimed at fostering a regional innovation system through knowledge creation, cross-boundary collaboration, and the cultivation of high-quality talent via inward-oriented higher education (HE) internationalisation. This paper examines how innovative universities in the GBA construct future imaginaries of internationalisation and communicate these images, as well as the ways in which they translate these imaginaries into practice by managing the student affairs and campus experiences of international students. Employing a multiple case study approach, the study focuses on two innovative GBA universities, utilising discourse analysis of institutional policies and social media, complemented by semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Findings reveal that these universities align their internationalisation imaginaries with a state-directed vision that emphasises political, diplomatic, and cultural partnerships over entrepreneurial motives. Unlike Anglo-Saxon models influenced by neoliberalism and academic entrepreneurialism, China’s approach leverages HE as a tool for cultural diplomacy and soft power, promoting Chinese characteristics in a multipolar, multicultural world. This research contributes to reimagining indigenous HE internationalisation, offering insights into how future imaginaries guide policy innovation and approaches to HE internationalisation. By situating university practices within national frameworks, the study underscores the interplay between state-led visions and institutional agency in advancing the regional innovation ecosystem.

The Labour government that came to power in the United Kingdom in 2024 seeks a new approach for its Africa relations. However, both the discarded and the new approaches are unclear. Despite extensive literature on UK activities in Africa, a focused study of UK grand strategy in Africa is limited in Strategic Studies and International Relations. This article examines UK grand strategy in Africa to determine its fit in a changing world. Using historical analysis of UK-Africa relations, I explore UK behavior in Africa to show that “offensive liberalism” best describes UK grand strategy in Africa. Using UK-Mali relations as a case study, I show that the approach struggles to achieve its objectives. It overly relies on multilateral institutions, assumes Africa to be a tabula rasa, and ignores competition in the international system as well as local resistance. Therefore, the UK needs an approach which avoids the flaws of offensive liberalism.

Within the milieu of career diplomats, think tank analysts and military planners that make up the “deep state,” key elements see their task as directly confronting the rise of multi-polarity. Rather than a confrontation where the U.S. is the belligerent party, they see their fight as a defensive one, almost anxiously so, raised against Iran and those other regional powers seemingly intent on upsetting the status quo established under U.S. unipolarity.