Identity In World Politics Research Articles

Human Rights and Democracy in Taiwan’s Foreign Policy and Cross-Strait Relations

Since the 1990s, Taiwan has achieved an impressive democratisation that has made it one of the most vibrant democratic societies in Asia. Most of the existing research about Taiwan’s foreign policy and cross-strait relations neglects how Taiwan’s identity and role as a democratic and pluralistic state influences the island’s external relations. This article analyses how Taiwan’s achievements in the field of democracy and human rights affect Taiwan’s foreign policy and its identity in world politics, and why democracy and human rights are important for it and its external relations. The analysis uses role theory and the three roles of normative power, civilian power, and Global Good Samaritan.

Introduction to special section: from Nordic exceptionalism to a third order priority – variations of “Nordicness” in foreign and security policy

ABSTRACTThis introduction presents the rationale for studying Nordicness in Nordic foreign and security policy with an overview of the renaissance of the Nordic dimension in research on Nordic foreign policy. The introduction also includes an analytical framework on Nordic security culture, developed from Jepperson, Wendt and Katzenstein [1996. Norms, Identity, and Culture in National Security. In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (pp. 33–75). New York: Columbia University Press.]. This framework is used throughout the special section.

Introduction: Nation Branding and Competitive Identity in World Politics

ABSTRACTTo date, (critical) geopolitics has had little to say about contemporary competitive identity practices of nation branding in global politics, while existing analyses of nation branding in other disciplines have tended to overlook its geopolitical dimensions. This expanded Introduction (and the special section as a whole) therefore seeks to explore some of the implications of nation branding for geopolitics, while simultaneously utilising the insights of critical geopolitics to shed light on nation branding practices. The Introduction makes the case for a broad conception of nation branding that challenges claims it is immutably linked to capitalist logics in an era of globalisation. It subsequently explores claims that nation branding is simply an updated form of nation building and that it is also an inherently benign and peace promoting activity. The Introduction ends by highlighting how, despite claims that the contemporary prevalence of nation branding practices is indicative of a categorical shift from a geopolitical to a geoeconomic world, nation branding practices frequently remain deeply infused with rather traditional geopolitical scripts.

Reconstructing India’s Identity in World Politics: An Emerging Convergence between Public Diplomacy and Constructivism

Public diplomacy has become one of the most significant instruments of foreign policy since the operation of international relations has become more public, and the public, in turn, has become more involved. While challenging the importance of material power in achieving various political outcomes, Public Diplomacy (PD) offers an alternative model of practice that enables an understanding of the normative or ideational structures that help in determining audience identities. It furthers our knowledge of international relations by engaging in shared understandings of this inter subjective dimension, mainly through social interaction and interplay. Here lies the convergence between public diplomacy and social constructivism. In defining PD, Bruce Gregory (an expert in PD and foreign affairs) suggests that PD is ‘the means by which states, associates of states and non state actors understand cultures , attitudes and behaviour, build and manage relationships; and influence opinions and actions to advance their interests and values.When a country seeks to achieve objectives and set targets, realize values, or defend interests, it must express, exchange and share its views and ideas with those whose actions and behaviour they wish to alter, deter, or reinforce. Such an interaction may vary from vividly defining the government’s objectives, and the various ways to realize them especially with regard to concluding agreements on contentious issues. The constructivists place IR and public diplomacy in the context of broader social relations. They lay emphasis on how state’s interests and identities are shaped by rule-governed (or norm-governed) interactions. In brief, the theory points out how norms influence state interests and behaviour. Thus, as rightly pointed out by Joshua Goldstein (an international relations expert), the state’s conception of interests, its presentation of itself on the international stage, and its behaviour all might change as a result of inter-state interactions. States, according to this view, come to see themselves as others see them quite similar to the general human tendency. The present article analyses the ways in which constructivist theories of international relations can inform public diplomacy practice. The paper draws on India’s approach to diplomacy and the significance of a virtual convergence between public diplomacy and constructivism in reshaping India’s identity in world politics.

The Eisenhower Administration and Public Diplomacy in India: An Ambivalent Engagement, 1953–1960

The United States–India relationship was fraught with misapprehension and ideological disagreement during the 1950s. Public diplomacy provides a valuable context for examining these dynamics. This analysis assesses the planning, deployment, and reception of American public diplomacy to India under President Dwight Eisenhower, a period encompassing Washington’s 1954 alliance with Pakistan and economic aid to India in 1957–1958. Public diplomacy reflects the Administration’s difficulty in clarifying its interests in India. The rhetorical and moralising approach of India’s leadership, and their prominence in the global non-aligned movement, contributed greatly to this ambivalence. Public diplomacy planning highlights Washington’s difficulties in confronting India’s identity in world politics; it struggled to craft messages on racial attitudes, consumerism, and Communism, whilst Soviet public diplomacy gave strong competition throughout the period. At the same time, several aspects of American public diplomacy resonated with Indian audiences, indicating that there was the possibility of a closer American relationship with India had Washington taken a different high policy approach to the region.

‘New Cold War’ or twenty years’ crisis? Russia and international politics

President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy can be characterized as a ‘new realism’, repudiating some of the exaggerated ambitions of Yevgeny Primakov's tenure as foreign minister in the late 1990s while asserting Russia's distinctive identity in world politics. Rather than acting as a classic ‘balancing’ power prescribed by classic realist theory as the response to the hegemonic power of a single state, Russia under Putin tended to ‘bandwagon’ and the country has been a vigorous ‘joiner’. Putin insisted that Russia retains its ‘autonomy’ in international politics while moving away from earlier ideas that Russia could constitute the kernel of an alternative power bloc. However, the opportunity to integrate Russia into the hegemonic international order may have been missed because of what is seen in Moscow as the resolute hostility of groups in the West who continue to pursue Cold War aims of isolating and containing Russia. The Cold War was transcended in an asymmetrical manner, and this has given rise to four major failures: political, strategic, intellectual and cultural. The world faces the danger of the onset of a new era of great power bloc politics, thus restoring a Cold War structure to the international system. With none of the major strategic issues facing the international community at the end of the Cold War yet resolved, we may be facing a new twenty years’ crisis.

The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics. Edited by Peter J. Katzenstein New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. 562p. $49.50 cloth, $17.50 paper.

The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics. Edited by Peter J. Katzenstein New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. 562p. $49.50 cloth, $17.50 paper.

Culture and military power

Ken Booth and Russell Trood (eds.), Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific Region, Basingstoke, Macmillan, forthcomingAlastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1995Peter J. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1996Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, Columbia, NY, Columbia University Press, 1996Elizabeth Kier, Imagining War: French and British Military Doctrine between the Wars, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1997

The New Culture of Security Studies

The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics Edited by Peter J. Katzenstein

The Culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics

The Culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics

The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics

1: Introduction: Alternative Perspectives on National Security, by Peter J. Katzenstein2: Norms, Identity, and Culture in National Security, by Ronald L. Jepperson, Alexander Wendt, and Peter J. KatzensteinI. Norms and National Security3: Status, Norms, and the Proliferation of Conventional Weapons: An Institutional Theory Approach, by Dana P. Eyre and Mark C. Suchman4: Norms and Deterrence: The Nuclear and Chemical Weapons Taboos, by Richard Price and Nina Tannenwald5: Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention, by Martha Finnemore6: Culture and French Military Doctrine Before World War II, by Elizabeth Kier7: Cultural Realism and Strategy in Maoist China, by Alastair Iain JohnstonII. Identity and National Security8: Identity, Norms, and National Security: The Soviet Foreign Policy Revolution and the End of the Cold War, by Robert G. Herman9: Norms, Identity, and National Security in Germany and Japan, by Thomas U. Berger10: Collective Identity in a Democratic Community: The Case of NATO, by Thomas Risse-Kappen11: Identity and Alliances in the Middle East, by Michael N. BarnettIII. Implications and Conclusions12: Norms, Identity, and Their Limits: A Theoretical Reprise, by Paul Kowert and Jeffrey Legro13: Conclusion: National Security in a Changing World, by Peter J. Katzenstein