International Identity Research Articles

Young Icelanders and popular culture: An empirical study of Anglicisms in conversation

Abstract The aim of the study is to investigate how young Icelanders use Anglicisms in conversation that is shaped by popular culture. The data comprises 4 hours and 30 minutes of recordings: spoken interaction between two fifteen-year-old boys that are playing a computer game, and a conversation between two young women hosting a podcast on fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment. The methodological approach applied in the study is interactional linguistics. The research questions are as follows: 1) What kind of Anglicisms occur in the data in respect to parts-of-speech? 2) What interactional functions do these items have in their context? The study begins by addressing the frequency and distribution of Anglicisms in the data, but the main emphasis is on the qualitative analysis of segments of talk. The study shows that speakers use Anglicisms in a systematic and meaningful way. In the analysis, the functions were categorised as follows: Anglicisms that appear on the screen, Anglicisms that index an international identity, Anglicisms as assessments and comments, and Anglicisms in rituals such as greetings and farewells.

Evolving Normative Dynamics: Understanding China's Varied Approaches to Overseas Corporate Social Responsibility in the Belt and Road Initiative Era

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is nowadays a global development initiative, with which China pursues a new international identity as a “responsible major country.” The inadequate fulfilment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in BRI partner countries however has tainted the BRI's cooperative “win–win” principle and sparked external legitimacy crises. This study explores how Chinese policymakers respond to overseas CSR challenges in the realms of environmental and societal responsibility. By integrating both constructivist and rationalist elements, we employ three key variables to facilitate cross-case comparisons. Our analysis reveals that China has favoured a parallel overseas CSR governance system that allows for tailored responses to specific contexts. China's nuanced approaches to international CSR standards reflect rational decisions influenced by issue-specific domestic–international normative fit, perceived legitimacy of the relevant international regime, and the significance of each issue to China's global status. This research offers insights into China's contextualised engagement with international CSR norms in the BRI era.

Českost a světovost moderního umění v Čechách (1848–1948)

The texts contained in this special issue of Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Philosophica et Historica / Studia Historiae Artium were presented as papers at a conference entitled Czechness and Internationalism of Modern Art in Bohemia (1848–1948), held on 24 May 2022 at the Institute of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. The theme of the conference was chosen in respect of the research interests of Professor Petr Wittlich, a long-time pedagogue and researcher at the Institute, who celebrated a significant jubilee on 23 May 2022. Colleagues, pupils and friends of the professor, who during their professional careers have also dealt with the issue of national, transnational and international identity of modern art in the Czech lands, were invited to participate in the conference. They focused both on local disciplinary practice and retrospective assessment of the phenomenon of nationality within modernity, modernism and the avant-garde, and also explored historical debates on this topic, projected into specific works, art projects and institutional programmes.

Cultural Export and Global Perception of the Mexican Film Industry

This paper examines the dynamic role of the Mexican film industry as a significant cultural exporter and its evolving perception in the global market. It traces the historical development of Mexican cinema from its Golden Age to its modern resurgence, highlighting the contributions of seminal filmmakers and landmark films that have shaped its international identity. The study explores the mechanisms of cultural export, including traditional and digital distribution channels and the pivotal role of film festivals and international awards. Further, it analyzes the global reception of Mexican films, noting the critical and audience responses across diverse cultural landscapes. The influence of Mexican cinema on global film practices and cultural trends is examined through its narrative innovations and thematic contributions. Finally, the paper discusses future trends and identifies potential challenges and opportunities for Mexican cinema, emphasizing the need for sustainable funding models and the balance between global appeal and cultural authenticity. This comprehensive review illuminates how Mexican cinema continues to contribute to and shape the global cinematic landscape, advocating for a more inclusive and diverse film culture.

Constructing an ‘emotional community’ in times of crisis: the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022

ABSTRACT How does the EU use emotions in its response to international crises arising from norm violations? In order to answer this question, the article focuses on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and theoretically, it draws on the sociology of emotions literature. The article argues that EU institutional actors use emotions to construct an ‘emotional community’ through their discourses during major crises. More specifically, the article shows that emotions matter in the EU’s crisis response in three ways: First, emotions serve to construct and endure a community of values. Second, emotions frame policy options for determining the EU’s reaction to the crisis. Third, emotions construct emotional boundaries between European emotional community (norm followers/the EU) and norm violators at the international level. By applying ‘emotional community’ concept to a new territory, i.e. the EU, the article aims to broaden our understanding of the EU’s international identity construction in times of crisis.

Dragon Power Europe: maturation through hybridisation

ABSTRACT Zooming in on the European Union’s international identity, this paper argues that maturation, and the achievement of a solid international identity, may result from a process in which different identity traits are integrated, even strategically incorporated. It frames this hybridisation argument in terms of Dragon Power Europe and proceeds in two steps. In a first step, the paper develops an integrated analytical framework for studying the European Union’s international identity by comparing the Normative Power Europe and Market Power Europe conceptualisations along three dimensions, namely drivers, actions and impact. In a second step, the paper demonstrates the framework’s empirical value through an exploration of the European Union’s functioning in relation to health information standardisation, investigating the logics behind the inclusion of a new chapter on diagnoses and syndromes associated with Traditional (Chinese) Medicine in the eleventh revision of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases in 2019. The involvement of the European Union and its member states in this specific case of health (information) standardisation shows initial but compelling evidence of NPE-MPE dynamics shaping the EU’s international functioning, in particular its drivers, actions and impact.

Maturation by practice: shaping the EU’s international identity in the absence of formal institutional change

ABSTRACT This article examines the interplay of the maturation of the EU’s identity as an international foreign and security actor with the institutionalisation of its foreign and security architecture. While the formal policy- and decision-making modes within the CFSP/CSDP have changed little during the past 25 years, the EU’s international identity did still change over time, potentially indicating a “coming of age”. How can we explain this maturation of the EU’s foreign and security identity despite the critique of the EU’s inefficiency and lack of adequateness in security policy? By means of re-interpreting existing scholarship, we argue that the relative maturation of the EU’s foreign and security identity since the Lisbon Treaty is not so much linked to formal institutional change (“maturation by design”), but rather to changing informal institutional practice and the selection and use of respective instruments (“maturation by practice”). This dynamic, we argue, is due to an interplay of internal and external factors, accompanied by ongoing socialisation of member states in how they perceive the nature of the CFSP/CSDP and the EU as an international foreign and security actor.

On the Dual International Identity of Contemporary China

Since the beginning of the 21st century, one of the central research questions for Chinese IR scholars has been the definition, justification and conceptualization of China’s international identity. This was due both to the discussions in the Chinese academic community about China’s peaceful rise, caused by the rapid growth of China’s material power, and to the “constructivist turn” in the development of IR as a discipline in China. Understanding China’s international identity is important not only for China itself as a way of understanding “itself” and “others”, but also for the world community, since the self-positioning of a state reveals its national interests, aspirations, foreign policy strategy and behavior. From the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to the end of the 1990s, when analyzing its foreign policy self-positioning, it was always possible to identify a dominant international identity. In the 1950s it was a pronounced international identity of the PRC as a socialist country, in the 1960s–1980s as a third world country, since the 1990s as the largest developing country. However, since the second half of the 1990s, China has started to reveal its identity as a responsible great power while simultaneously maintaining its identity as a developing country. The use of two international identities by China for almost three decades and the intention repeatedly emphasized by the Chinese leadership to maintain self-positioning as a developing country for a long time allow us to conclude that China’s dual international identity is not a reflection of the transition period of China’s development, but represents a complex phenomenon that requires conceptualization. The purpose of this article is to reveal the phenomenon of contemporary China having a dual international identity or, in other words, simultaneously two dominant international identities that determine China’s actions on the global stage. The author intended to reveal, based on an analysis of Chinese academic publications, the Chinese vision of the phenomenon of dual international identity.

EU Climate Leadership: Contradictions Inherent in Carbon Regulation

The article analyzes the EU Carbon Border Adjustment mechanism (CBAM) through the lens of the EU’s aspiration to strengthen its leadership in fighting climate change. The introduction of CBAM is viewed as another step toward achieving the EU's goal of climate neutrality, which has become a standard for global development. By studying the internal and external dynamics of CBAM's implementation, the article aims to analyze its role as a tool for diplomatic and exemplary leadership. On the one hand, the EU seeks to protect European producers from producers from countries with lower climate standards. On the other hand, the EU’s desire to involve other countries in creating CBAM-style mechanisms is supposed to strengthen the EU’s leadership, contributing to the formation of multilateral “climate clubs” and the gradual revision of the existing climate regime. However, the article suggests that there are inherent contradictions in the EU's approach. While it seeks to protect its economy through CBAM, it also frames these measures within the narrative of multilateral cooperation. This dual approach poses challenges to the EU's leadership potential. The protectionist nature of CBAM makes other global players, primarily the U.S., follow the same path of taking protective measures. China is not willing to give up its own framing of the climate agenda due to its importance for the construction of China’s international identity. Russia’s perception of the climate change problem is infl uenced by its national interests and the structure of economy. The projection of regulatory power beyond the EU’s borders also provokes resistance from developing and least developed countries, which can seriously damage the EU’s role as a normative power.

China's Identity Positioning and Diplomacy among Developing Countries

In the contemporary era characterized by the collective rise of emerging nations with China at the forefront, significant shifts in the power structure of the international system have emerged. An urgent concern is how China should position itself and delineate friend from foe in order to garner international support from a vast array of developing countries. China's intricate national circumstances and the profound transformations in the global environment present formidable obstacles to defining its national and international identity. Historically, China has positioned itself as the "largest developing country." However, given its significantly larger scale compared to other developing countries within the global community, disagreements from developed nations regarding China's classification as a developing country have surfaced, leading to economic frictions between China and other countries. Concurrently, China's efforts to secure international support primarily from developing countries have been impeded by certain nations adopting counter-strategies within the backdrop of Sino-American strategic competition, inadvertently imposing substantial economic costs on China and even posing direct threats to its core interests. Therefore, basing its actions on a sound sense of righteousness and benefits, accurately positioning China within the international system and distinguishing between friends and adversaries is a prerequisite for conducting diplomatic work. This approach can potentially mitigate the costs of China's rise, enhance its strategic credibility, and facilitate the acquisition of broader international support. In future diplomatic endeavors, China should persist in safeguarding and advancing the interests of the vast community of developing countries, adhering to a diplomatic layout grounded in the prioritization of relationships with developing countries. This approach will underscore China's commitment to international justice and facilitate the transformation of its identity into that of a "responsible major power," thereby reshaping its perspectives on the international order in this new era.

Nepal-Britain treaty 1923: Nepal's achievements and legacies

Nepal’s independent status has largely been shaped by historical events, personalities, treaties, and agreements. Domestic and external events that happened in the first two decades of the twentieth century had and continued to have a direct impact on Nepal’s external behavior and independence. During that period, Nepal was deeply engaged in war with British-India and Tibet as well as in World War-I. Nepal’s deep involvement in regional and global affairs resulted in the conclusion of the treaty between the United Kingdom and Nepal in 1923 A.D. which helped consolidate Nepal’s independent status thereafter. Against this backdrop, a descriptive analysis of the historic events such as Chandra Shamsher's rule in Nepali politics, Lord Curzon’s arrival in India as British-India’s Viceroy, the Lhasa Mission 1903-04, Nepal’s involvement in World War-I and the Hunting Diplomacy of Nepal are described in this article mainly to explain their contributions to the 1923 Treaty. The provisions of the treaty have also been examined with a view to assessing its contributions to the independence of Nepal. In short, it is an effort to argue on Chandra Shamsher's diplomatic success to consolidate Nepal’s independence through a treaty between the United Kingdom and Nepal in 1923. In the short run, that treaty contributed to Nepal’s international recognition as an independent sovereign country setting it aside from other Indian princely states. In the long run, it contributed to building a distinct international identity of Nepal.

아이덴티티디자인에 나타난 ‘손짓언어’의 유형별 표현 사례 연구

Non-verbal communication has gradually developed into an independent discipline since the 1950s, and many scholars are conducting endless research on non-linguistics even now. In fact, research on non-verbal hand gestures in the design field is still insufficient. The headquarters collected and analyzed cases using hand gestures in domestic and international identity design. The meaning was categorized into ritual/evaluation action, request/solicitation action, emotion expression action, information provision action, and instruction action to present the basis for analysis. As a result, the most commonly used gesture in identity design is a gesture with all five fingers outstretched. If the angle and direction of this gesture are different, the meaning of the design appears differently. Nonverbal communication has distinct cultural characteristics, so it shows great differences between countries and peoples, and sometimes even the same form can express contradictory meanings.

Feyyaz Kayacan's Art of War: Multiculturalism and Surrealism in "The Shelter Stories"

Feyyaz Kayacan, one of the pioneering figures of the Turkish short story, pursued a multicultural life and published his works in French, English, and Turkish. His literary journeys across languages and cultures not only enabled him to get in touch with the literary and artistic movements of his time but also allowed him to take an active part in the surrealist groups in London. After surveying Kayacan’s international identity and his quest for belonging both in his actual life and in his short fiction, this article concentrates on The Shelter Stories (Sığınak Hikâyeleri, 1962), a collection of the short stories that portray the Londoners during the Second World War. It traces the possible sources that might have incited Kayacan’s imagination in writing such idiosyncratic short stories full of linguistic tricks and figures of speech. Drawing attention to the similarity between Kayacan’s imagination and the visual representations of the wartime painters Paul Nash and Henry Moore, the article underlines that Kayacan’s art of war is geared to transform dark feelings into a cheerful spirit.

Thomas Denton’s Perambulation: Two Counties, Three Kingdoms, and Four Nations History?

This article uses a late seventeenth-century county survey as a key to understand conceptions of county, national, and international identity. Previous historians of ‘Britain’ and its composite nations have insufficiently attended to the interaction between these elements. Thomas Denton’s Perambulation of Cumberland, with additions on Westmorland, the Isle of Man, and Ireland, contains a wealth of evidence as to how a Cumbrian, English, and British subject integrated these elements in this period. In addition to showing the assimilation of subjects within and across these boundaries, it equally reveals their differentiation and exclusion. Denton impugns English political and religious opponents, deals uneasily with Scottish and Manx otherness, and firmly scorns the Irish. National distinctions are, ultimately, less assured than negotiable. It is argued that intensive focus of this kind alerts us to exchanges of ideas and identities within an individual, rather than seeing identity groups as necessarily in opposed camps.

The Common Commercial Policy as a Legal Instrument of Confirmation of the European Union International Identity

Abstract The key component of European Union external action is undoubtedly its Common Commercial Policy. Under EU primary law, the exercise of this policy falls within the exclusive competence of the EU. In order to assure its implementation, the competent EU institutions negotiate and conclude international agreements with third countries and adopt secondary law acts, mainly in the form of Regulations with the aim of liberalizing and expanding international trade as well as promoting protecting the commercial interests of member states' businesses in the international markets. The aim of the study is to examine the question of the delimitation of the scope of the Common Commercial Policy as well as the operation of the EU institutional system regarding its the formation and implementation after previously analyzing the objectives served by the exercise of this common policy in the field of international economic relations. JEL classification numbers: K20, K33, F13. Keywords: European Union Law, Common Commercial Policy.

From Students to Colleagues: The Becoming of US International Student Affairs Professionals

This qualitative study explored international student affairs professionals’ (SA Pros) job search journey in the United States. By employing self-efficacy as a theoretical framework, nine SA Pros who were born and raised in foreign countries and pursued student affairs graduate degrees in the United States revealed five themes in their job search: past involvement as inspirations, challenges during the job search, resources from international colleagues and friends, and seeing international identity as an asset.

PISA’s Impact on China’s education policy

This article analyzes PISA’s impact on China’s education policy. This is done by analyzing the reports related to PISA released by the ministry of education of the Republic of China. This study aims to demonstrate how Chinese government utilizes the PISA result to support the previous dicisions about education policy or to identifies problems existing in the national education system? The analysis shows that PISA mainly impact China’s education policy in five ways: (1) PISA is considered as an external but legitimate barometer to measure the national education system (2) PISA is used as a reference to make technical improvement to the national educational system (3) PISA is used to generate evidence for existing policies. (4) PISA is used to find out future required development in the national education system. (5) PISA is helping to create a new international identity for the country which is one of the main goals of the ongoing educational reform. Thus, the analysis shows that the PISA result is used to support some existing policies and to improve the country’s political situation. However, it does have a substantial impact on the national educational policy, especially in the assessment area.

How do US universities want to be perceived? Factors affecting the (inter)national identity claims in mission statements

ABSTRACT Higher education institutions (HEIs) often function in an environment where various institutional pressures force them to position themselves on a national-international orientation scale in order to gain legitimacy in the eyes of different constituents with different expectations. Empirical insights, however, on how HEIs respond to these forces and position themselves within this debate are largely lacking. Hence, this study builds on organizational identity theory and institutional theory to assess the national and international identity claims expressed by the mission statements, a dominant organizational identity narrative, of HEIs as well as institutional factors affecting the selected position. A mixed methods analysis of the mission statements of 120 US universities indicates that universities’ identity claims can be classified in five categories of national claims and five of international claims. The findings suggest that institutional forces affect the position of universities on the national/international continuum but that universities’ attempts to reconcile these pressures are much more refined than expected as universities try to strike a subtle balance between being similar and different.

The Impact of the Ukraine War on Russian–North Korean Relations

This article examines the impact of the Ukraine war on Russian–North Korean relations at three different levels. At the international level, the war will bring two power groups into confrontation. The closer security cooperation between Russia and China will form an illiberal group that will set the security environment for North Korea to establish a new international identity. At the regional level, Russian–Chinese security alignment will be reinforced, which North Korea will exploit. At the bilateral level, Russian–North Korean relations will be strengthened as Russia’s influence in Northeast Asia wanes.

Afterthought

Now that you have gotten your journal cluster on Social Issues to this point, I wonder whether that whets your appetite for more. I am, of course, not up to date with Gestalt therapy’s contributions to social issues, even though Paul Goodman was a master at it. Still, the idea of never allowing ignorance to interfere with having an opinion encourages me to wonder whether some identified leadership is required for a more broad exploration within our circle. I think you, Joseph Melnick, would be a good person for that except for the fact that you may have other things on your mind regarding your time of life and what you want to do with it. I also think of Carolyn Lukensmeyer, whom I have heard from recently, as a good associate. Perhaps, you have younger people who promise perspective and energy.It seems to me that the spreading of a message requires a name or a theme that people at large can identify with. Having a group with an international identity where membership is unlimited is a theme from which religion has profited, and about which psychotherapists have been very suspicious. But it is an identifiable community of seekers of orientation about how life should be lived.Perhaps, such groups have a bad name because of the excesses of EST and Landmark and other examinations of life. But that, of course, does not have to be the case. These are some of my thoughts about social issues, and it is stimulating for me to think about the matter. Perhaps that is enough.