Foreign Policy Identity Research Articles

1 Diplomasi Pertahanan Indonesia dalam Membangun Identitas Berbeda di antara Negara- Negara di Kawasan Asia Tenggara

The country acts based on its political identity, where several elements like interactions,norms, culture, status, and state history are able to form this identity. Every country hasa different way to understand its element, which generates different identities, policies,and strategies between countries in the international system. The purpose of this studyis to explain the accumulation of identity-forming elements that form the identity of freeand active foreign policy in Indonesia. This research was prepared using the perspectiveof Constructivism, the theory of Free and Active Politics as well as Defense Diplomacy.This research used descriptive qualitative research methods in which the research datawas obtained through a literature review. The results of this research indicate thatIndonesia, through an understanding of the elements forming identity, has formed a freeand active foreign policy identity. Indonesia uses free and active identity to achievenational interests and maintain its existence in the international system. With a differentpolitical identity from Indonesia, other countries in Southeast Asia tend to cooperatewith either the United States of America or China. Through the implementation of freeand active foreign policy, Indonesia is the only neutral country in Southeast Asia whichmeans that Indonesia is in the middle of both superpowers.Keywords: Political Identity; Free and Active; National Interest; Tendency; andNeutrality

Роль научного дискурса в трансформации стратегии национальной безопасности Великобритании

The research is devoted to the influence of scientific discourse on international relations. Three levels were identified - national foreign policy, interstate and supranational. This article focuses on a national-level study using the example of the UK. The withdrawal of the UK from the EU led to the transformation of the country's foreign policy identity. Today, in a new form and under new conditions, W. Churchill's idea of three equivalent roles for the UK – influence in Europe, in the Commonwealth and cooperation with the USA – is being re-incorporated into it. The scientific and expert community occupies an important place in the process of forming UK's foreign policy identity. Due to the authority of a number of British think tanks and the deep involvement of scientists in the process of national strategic planning, it plays a significant role in the planning of UK government policy. In the research, using the method of discourse analysis, the example of seven leading think tanks, and the approaches of the scientific and expert community to understanding the key problems and transformation of the UK national security strategy were studied. The analysis revealed a split in the positions of British researchers both on the problem of the UK’s future place in the world, and on the issue of government measures necessary to implement the most beneficial scenarios for the country's national interests. The impossibility of accurately predicting the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and relations with the EU in the field of security gives rise to polar points of view about the UK's future foreign policy subjectivity. According to the author, all the think tanks use the methodology of political realism in their research, which determines the primacy of the factors of power in the British scientific discourse. This limits the possibilities for long-term planning of foreign policy. The author sees the mostly tactical, adaptive and reactionary nature of the approaches of the British political elites to foreign and defense policy. However, the 2021 Comprehensive Review revealed a tendency towards a clearer understanding and formulation by political elites of the country's place in the world, which, including thanks to scientific political discourse, will continue to develop.

Lebanon and the Syrian Civil War: Sectarian Perceptions and Positions

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the role of sectarian identity in foreign policy making by bringing sub-state sectarian actors into foreign policy studies. The paper takes Lebanon and the Syrian Civil War as a case study through a close scrutiny of the emergence and the consolidation of foreign policy orientations, preferences and behaviour of the Maronite, Sunni, Shia and Druze leaders in Lebanon. By doing so, it asks how sectarian groups behave as sub-state foreign policy actors in countries where society is divided along sectarian identities and how sectarian identities matter in terms of the definition of the self and the other and the ally and the enemy in weak states. It further questions to what extent sectarian groups can be considered as sub-state foreign policy actors with their own perceptions based on their identities. Building its main findings on various fieldworks in Lebanon conducted in 2016 and 2017, interviewing leaders of major sects; this study concludes that in the absence of a cohesive foreign policy stance in a weak state, the role of sectarian identity in defining self and other becomes central for understanding the foreign policy choices of sectarian leaders faced with an existential challenge.

INFLUENCE OF POWER NARRATIVES ON THE FORMATION OF THE US FOREIGN POLICY IDENTITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Since today the constructivist study of international relations puts the social components of their formation in the foreground, the foreign policy identity of a state becomes primary thing in determining its national interests and its foreign policy course. Accordingly, the goal of this article is to determine the complex influence of power narratives on the formation of the US foreign policy identity in the 21st century in the context of transformation of the domestic political matrix and redistribution of the influence between various political forces in this country. To achieve this goal, the author used the following research methods: the system analysis method, while determining the theoretical and methodological foundations for studying the phenomenon of foreign policy identity; the method of analogies and comparisons, while considering the power and political organization and institutionalization of the spatial structure of government in the United States; the method of comprehensive analysis, while establishing the main indicators of effectiveness of the influence of power narratives on the formation of the US foreign policy identity; the method of factor analysis, while substantiating the need to use individual approaches in building power narratives of the American politicians. As a result, the author determined that the US authorities form their narratives using an exclusive approach to the construction of collective identity of the society. However, such an algorithm is quite successful while forming stable foreign policy identity of the US.Key words: foreign policy identity, USA, power, narrative, G. Bush, B. Obama, War on Terror.

EU in the Modern World: problems of Regional Policy and Foreign Political Identity

The article analyzes the regional policy of the European Union and the problems of regionalization through the prism of modern theoretical provisions about the region and identifying its place in the existing system of international relations; shows the EU's practical steps to assert its role as an independent actor in the world arena. Attention is focused on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the processes of globalization, on the key principles of which ‒ the free movement of people and goods ‒ were dealt a noticeable blow. The pandemic has intensified the processes of regionalization, the strengthening of which occurred as a natural response to the challenge. The author of the article analyzes the problems of regionalism through the prism of a collective monograph by well-known experts on regionalism and international relations E.B. Mikhailenko and V. I. Mikhailenko "European Union's Foreign Policy in the XXI century. European interregionalism", which became a continuation of the scientific research of the authors at the Ural Federal University. The article focuses on such vulnerabilities of the EU's regional policy as poorly formed EU foreign policy identity; dependence in the field of security on the United States; insufficient use of the tools of "hard power" to defend their interests and promote their values and ideals. The still insufficiently meaningful manifestations and consequences of the pandemic have given additional relevance to the monograph, clarifying the origins, difficulties, trends in the implementation of the EU's foreign regional policy, the achievement of interregionalism, its goals and limits

From hard to soft misplacement: South Africa’s ambivalent African identity

Drawing on the layered model of identity change, this paper identifies three layers shaping South Africa’s foreign policy identity and how it is enacted through various roles. The most sedimented, fundamental layer least subject to change involves South Africa’s assertion of its sovereignty and its quest for legitimacy. The middle layer provides more exact demarcations between Self and Other, highlighting South Africa’s role in being a leader, mediator and bridge. Finally, the top, least institutionalized layer reveals that, although Pretoria is no longer subject to the hard misplacement of the apartheid years, South Africans’ sense of exceptionalism to the rest of the continent in the post-apartheid era and other Africans’ deep ambivalence toward South Africa, continue. The article highlights continuities and discontinuities between the apartheid and post-apartheid periods of statehood.

The Islamic Republic of Iran in Search of its Foreign Policy Identity: Revolutionary Innovation or Continuity?

Self-perception in the international arena plays a great role in the development of a country's foreign policy strategy. Not all states can answer the question «who are we in relation to others»? In particular, we can describe the past 20 century and the first decades of the 21st century as the time of Tehran's search for its foreign policy identity, which is not finished even today. Despite many discussion, the Iranian political elite has not only failed to find a single definition of its foreign policy selfhood, but has produced several more formulas of its own identity, which often contradict each other, although they coexist. The events of 1979, when the new leadership that came to power in the course of revolutionary upheavals announced the rejection of the traditions of the Shah's Iran and the building of a new "revolutionary" nation with its own special foreign policy identity, had a significant impact on the process of forming the Iranian selfhood. The article analyzes the main trends that exist in the Iranian foreign policy self-perception, in order to confirm the hypothesis that the «revolutionary experiment» did not lead to a break in the continuity in the issue of Iranian self-identification. On the contrary, there is an attempt by the country's leadership to combine Islamic, revolutionary and nationalist principles in determining the role of their country in the international arena, which let us speak about the multi-component foreign policy identity of modern Iran.

Identity Discourse within a Geopolitical Crisis

The annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 dramatically changed routine practices and perceptions about Lithuania’s foreign policy agenda. The threat to this small state’s security marked a new era of active searching for self-definition and policy direction. The article aims to analyse the dominant tendencies of Lithuania’s identity in foreign and security policy after 2014. Lithuania is selected precisely because of its vocal reaction and concerns after the annexation of Crimea. This article analyses speeches, comments and statements made within contemporary political discourse by key political leaders in Lithuania’s foreign and security policy. It argues that – in light of potential military threat – political leaders advocate for increased self-responsibility and readiness to act as the relations with their respective partners remain both crucial and complicated.

İran’ın Dış Politika Kimliğini Oluşturan Faktörler

Bu çalışmada İran’ın dış politika belirleme sürecinde etkili olan İranlılık, İslam, İran’ın jeopolitiği ve Şii Hilali ve devrim ihracı kimlikleri inşacılık teorisi üzerinden açıklanmaya çalışılacaktır. İranlılık kimliğinin geçmişten bu yana İran için ifade ettiği anlamsal değişimlerle birlikte güncel politikadaki etkisi tespit edilerek, İran’ın üzerinde bulunduğu jeopolitik konum ve bu konumun doğurduğu stratejik yönelimler özellikle Şii Hilali üzerinden tartışılacaktır. Bununla birlikte devrim ardı süreçte İran’ın izlemeye başladığı politikalar özellikle İslam kimliği ile ilişkisi üzerinde durularak irdelenecektir. Söz konusu süreçte devrim ihracı noktasında izlenen politikalar ve bu politikaların sosyo-ekonomik, sosyo-kültürel boyutları incelenecektir. Literatür taraması neticesinde sözü edilen kimliklere ilişkin çeşitli yaklaşımlar sıralanarak İran’ın dış politikasına ilişkin bütüncül bir çerçeve çizilecektir. Ayrıca İran’ın dış politika kimliklerinin oluşmasına kaynaklık oluşturan iç dinamiklerin neler olduğu üzerinde de durulacaktır. Özellikle devrim ardı süreçte etkinlik kazanan kimliklerin devrim öncesi süreçte etkili olan kimliklerle karşılaştırılması yapılarak İran’ın dış politikasının anlamlandırılması aşamasında sözü edilen kimliklerin etkisinin tahlil edilebilmesi mümkün hale gelecektir.

The Eastern Partnership: Geopolitics and policy inertia

On the eve of its tenth anniversary, the EU’s Eastern Partnership seems to be drifting towards placing greater emphasis on differentiation and stabilisation than on reforms. This contrasts with the transformative ambitions displayed by the EU when it launched this new initiative in 2009. These ambitions have produced mixed results and were partly abandoned in the 2015 European Neighbourhood Policy Review. Since then, policy inertia seems to have prevailed. This exposes the EU to the risk that its relations with its eastern partners will become increasingly geopoliticised. This might lead the EU to lower its transformative ambitions even further. And this, in turn, could throw into question a fundamental aspect of its foreign policy identity, the EU’s role as a transformative power. In other words, such a development might not only weaken the EU’s role in its eastern neighbourhood but also undermine the added value of its foreign policy.

Understanding the marginality constellations of small states: Serbia, Croatia, and the crisis of EU–Russia relations

ABSTRACT Understanding the contemporary identity-role construction of small states in South-East Europe is closely linked to the process of reshaping the relative geometry of regional influence of the EU-centre and its powerful marginal actors. This has become increasingly obvious since 2008 with the unraveling of the global economic crisis, Russia’s revived influence in the region, and the crisis of EU enlargement − processes that are usually perceived as challenges to the prevalent European conception of order. This paper seeks to explore the interaction of more powerful actors from both the European ‘ center’ and its ‘margins’ with the small states on the South-East margin, by developing the framework that builds on Noel Parker’s theory of ‘positive marginality’ and the updated ‘constellation theory’ by Hans Mouritzen and Anders Wivel. Theoretically, I propose the concepts of ‘marginality constellation’, ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ margins, to understand how small states frame their understanding of agency in world politics more broadly. Empirically, the paper delves into Croatia’s and Serbia’s foreign policies from 2014 on, to illustrate how the two countries manage their foreign policy identity narratives to respond to the shifting geopolitical centre-margin discourses of the EU and Russia in light of the crisis in Ukraine.

Государства Ближнего Востока в поисках внешнеполитической идентичности

In the Middle East, the formation of nation-states has not been completed, and a search for foreign policy identity is still underway. The article examines the roots and evolution of foreign policy identity in three major Middle East states – Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The authors analyze interaction between the national identities and foreign policy in different cultural contexts and under different political regimes. Turkey, which recalls its Ottoman past, is rapidly returning to the Middle East, challenging other players. Polls demonstrate that a growing share of the Turkish society is confident that Turkey can play an important role in the modern world, serve as a “model” for other states and act independently in the international arena. Tehran is actively pursuing a policy of regional expansion, relying on Shia communities and on its military might, which can eventually lead to a regional hegemony. This policy is based on several identities – revolutionary, pragmatist and pan-Iranian, which do not contradict and even complement each other. Saudi Arabia in the 21st century is positioning itself not only as a leader of the global Muslim, especially Sunni, community, but is also increasingly behaving as a hegemon of the Arab world countering the Iranian expansion. Despite all modernization efforts, the foreign policy identity of the Kingdom is strongly influenced by the tribal mentality of its ruling elite. The research demonstrates that in the Middle East states, foreign policy is strongly influenced by informal institutions – be it a western-type republic, a theocracy or an absolute monarchy. Hence customs, traditions, historical memory have a substantial impact on how the elites and general public envision the role of these countries and that of their rivals.

Construction of the foreign policy identity of the state as the correlation between factor influences

Construction of the foreign policy identity of the state as the correlation between factor influences

Construction of foreign policy identity in the area of cultural differences

Construction of foreign policy identity in the area of cultural differences

ЗОВНІШНЬОПОЛІТИЧНА ІДЕНТИЧНІСТЬ АМЕРИКАНЦІВ У КАРИКАТУРИСТИЦІ США ПОЧАТКУ ХХ ст. «СВІТОВИЙ ПОЛІЦЕЙСЬКИЙ» Л. ДЕЛРІМПЛА

This article examines visual representations of T. Roosevelt's foreign policy in «World’s constable» political cartoon by Louis Dalrymple. The author's analysis of the cartoon sheds light on Americans’ attitude towards the US new international role as the police power according to the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The study of L. Dalrymple's biography, the Judge history, an analysis of particular historical context of the cartoon, makes it possible to consider it as an important source to the history of US foreign policy of the end of 19th – on the beginning of 20th centuries, as well as a representation and an instrument for the construction of Americans' foreign policy identity.

Turkey-Africa alliance: Evolving patterns in security relations

ABSTRACTTurkey has maintained its strategic relations with Africa at the highest level under recent AK Party governments in the field not only of low politics but also of high politics. For example, it opened its largest overseas military base in Somalia in 2017 and signed military, defense and security pacts with more than 25 African countries. This article traces the deep historical and cultural relations with Africa behind its newly evolving foreign policy identity, arguing that its booming economic power has been a significant driving force in shaping a new security strategy. It examines what the growing security involvement means for both Turkey and Africa in order to contribute to the relevant literature through a holistic approach from both theoretical and conceptual perspectives.

Epilogue: “Nordicness” – theory and practice

ABSTRACTThis epilogue offers a critical reflection on the key findings of the six articles in this special issue on “Nordicness” in foreign policy. It engages with the theoretical issues in studying regional security communities, both in terms of the utility of role theory and the implications of the literature on strategic culture for the concept of security culture which this study of Nordicness uses. The main argument developed here is the need to combine analysis of material and ideational factors in order to fully understand the dynamics of Nordicness in security policy. The article also identifies the key dilemmas and ambiguities of Nordic defence cooperation, and the pivotal role of Sweden in determining the future evolution of a shared Nordic foreign policy identity.

Emotions and Identity as Foreign Policy Determinants: Serbian Approach to Relations with Russia

The paper argues that while the Serbian society and political elite are known for treating their country’s accession to the EU in terms of pragmatic utility maximisation, they generally conceive of Serbian relations with Russia, contrariwise, as an identity-laden issue. To prove it, the author analyses Serbia’s behaviour toward Russia along the features of emotion-driven cooperation, found in the literature on identity and emotions in foreign policy. In particular, the paper focuses on Serbians’ especially strong friendliness vis-a-vis Russia, the parallel existence of the Other (the West) in their identity and the particularly strong intensity of their attraction to Russia during Serbia-West conflicts, the reinforcement of their affection to Russia by national traumas, the endurance of the affection’s strength despite conflicting rational interests and negative experiences in bilateral interaction, the frequent occurrence of references to Russia in Serbia’s domestic discourse and decisional justifications and a large use of historical analogies concerning Russia. Finally, the author ponders over the implications of the existent configuration of emotional and pragmatic forces in Serbian politics for the country’s current and future conduct toward Russia and the EU.

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