National Foreign Policy Research Articles

Comparative analysis of the Russian foreign policy priorities and research interests of the national academic community

Assessment of the correlation in priorities of the academic community and national foreign policy represents not only an intriguing research question by itself, but also an important practical task. As the governmental bodies remain the main source of demand for professionals and research in International Relations, such analysis could create a foundation for the status and material aspirations of scholars. Nevertheless, there were no systematic attempts to assess the abovementioned correlation on the basis of the sufficient empirical data. The current article is aimed to stimulate discussion regarding the connections between policy and academic priorities through providing comparative analysis of the major directions in Russian official documents and topics covered in PhD theses on International Politics. The analysis covers the period from the early 1990s until 2016. The use of PhD theses as an object for the current study is justified by their reflection of long-term research orientations, significant multiplying effect on higher education and academic publications, as well as define transition of young specialists from students to members of the professional community. The article proves that thematical preferences of the PhD theses, prepared in 2000s and 2010s, to a great extent correlate with the priorities defined by the Russian Concepts of foreign policy. However, they underrepresent several important policy directions, siuch as arms control, political aspects of global innovation system and international relations in the Post-Soviet space and in the Asia Pacific.

Charting the EU–national strategic constellation: understanding EU strategy through member states’ strategic partnerships—an analysis of the Czech case

That the national foreign policies of EU member states impact on the EU’s strategy and strategic performance as a (global) foreign policy actor is not in doubt. But how this happens is a different matter. In analysing EU strategy, national foreign policies are often reduced to their (non-)alignment with that of the EU. This not only de-strategises them but also obscures the range of ways in which member states reinforce or undercut the EU’s strategic actor-ness, particularly those involving relations between member states. We address this gap by zooming in on one such way: member states’ bilateral strategic partnerships. We provide a newly comprehensive conceptualisation of strategic partnerships and employ this to analyse their role in the ‘EU–national strategic constellation’, focusing on Czech strategic partnerships—with both EU and non-EU states. This analysis shows the latent political as well as analytical potential of this underexplored aspect of EU strategy.

TOO WEAK TO INFLUENCE? A CASE STUDY OF THE LITHUANIAN NGDOs IN FOREIGN AID POLICY MAKING

For the East Central European Countries (ECE), the membership in the European Union also meant an entry into the foreign aid donor community. To understand the international development policy change in over a decade and a policy divergence among the ECE countries that have started from relatively similar situations, this article offers the case study of Lithuania and the analysis of domestic policy actors, namely the non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) as one of the policy change facilitating factors. It provides an empirically-rich account of how Lithuanian NGDOs participate in the national foreign aid policymaking and explains factors that affect Lithuanian NGDOs’ capacity to influence government decisions. Szent-Ivanyi’s and Lightfoot’s theoretical model guided the analysis of the Lithuanian NGDOs umbrella organisations composition and power relations, their organizational capacities, foreign donor assistance and attitudes of the state actors. The article concludes the limited, yet increasing Lithuanian NGDOs’ role in shaping Lithuanian foreign aid policies, as undermined as they are by the chronic lack of resources to fund advocacy from national sources and the dependency on the EU project-based funding. Consequently, these circumstances constrain the NGDO Platforms’ focus mostly on the EU development agenda and therefore mimic the European NGO networks’ policy agenda. The lack of capacities among the NGDOs to adapt a European policy agenda to the national foreign aid policy reality makes it of limited relevance to the policy makers domestically.

Between national and European foreign policy: the role of Latvia and Romania in the EU’s policy towards Central Asia

This article explores whether and to what extent new member states of the European Union (EU) seek to pursue their national foreign policy goals towards Central Asia through the EU rather than bilaterally. To do so, it focuses on Latvia and Romania. While the article finds evidence of Romanian attempts to project its interests in the region onto the EU level, Latvia appears to rely more extensively on the EU level to pursue its goals towards Central Asia. Using insights from the literature on Europeanization of national foreign policy, the article explains this finding with reference to four variables that determine whether a member state will seek to upload its national foreign policy preferences onto the EU level, namely the perceived salience of the policy goals, the extent to which member states can carve out a niche, their perceived capabilities and the level of Europeanization of their national foreign policies.

Examining the Ethics of Government-Organized Nongovernmental Organizations (GONGOs)

This article explores the ethics of an increasingly pervasive form of third-sector organization, the government-organized nongovernmental organization. GONGOs are an important means of projecting state power in a broad spectrum of foreign policy and national security contexts, from boardrooms to battlefields. As these organizations become increasingly professionalized, a need emerges for defining the bounds of their ethical conduct. Because the nature of their authority evolves in an age of public value governance, their institutional ethos also requires evaluation. This article examines existing principles of government, nonprofit, military, and private military contractor ethics to assist in defining the bounds of GONGO ethics. It uses international law to provide guidance on ethical standards for organizations supporting noncombat national security and foreign policy missions, provides prescriptive guidance for their operation, and contemplates questions for future research.

Understanding and improving intelligence analysis by learning from other disciplines

Intelligence organizations acquire, evaluate, assess, and disseminate information to support national security and foreign policy decision-making. It is part of a government’s efforts to get as close to complete information as possible about both the operating environment as well as other actors. The methodologies employed by intelligence analysts are similar to yet different from those used in many other academic disciplines and professional fields. This discussion about methodology – a form of comparative applied epistemology – can be used to better understand intelligence analysis as a function of government and improve the performance of intelligence analysts.

The European Parliament and the European Political Cooperation. The search for a proper role in the Community’s first foreign policy

The article focuses on the European Parliament and the development of the European Political Cooperation (EPC), the first attempt to harmonize EC member states’ national foreign policies into a single European framework. Being an intergovernmental policy, developing outside of the Treaties, the European Parliament had no official role in the development of the EPC. Yet, it challenged member states’ monopoly over foreign relations through some autonomous initiatives and forced them to accept small increase in the Parliament’s powers of scrutiny over the EPC. Once the European Council accepted the introduction of direct elections, the European Parliament could legitimately claim a greater role on the development of the EPC: being the only elective institution it could assure a democratic oversight over the EPC. By assuring a (limited) role to the European Parliament, the EPC remained an intergovernmental field of actions, although it now contemplated some supranational features.

Beyond India’s Quest for a Neoliberal Order

In many ways, 2016 was a year of reckoning for India's national security and foreign policy grand strategy. On the domestic front, the year marked the completion of 25 years of India's economic lib...

The Impact of the Eurozone Crisis on National Foreign Policy: Enhancing Europeanization in the Case of Cyprus*

AbstractThis article investigates the impact of the eurozone crisis on the foreign policy of an EU Member State, Cyprus. Drawing on the literature on Europeanization of national foreign policies, it is argued that Cypriot foreign policy, despite the general frustration caused by the financial crisis within broader society, has actually undergone further Europeanization. We show that leadership is a critical intervening variable in this enhanced Europeanization, as well as pointing to the salience of the explanatory mechanisms of social and instrumental learning. The contribution of the article is twofold. It offers an empirical account of contemporary Cypriot foreign policy and contributes to the discussion of the impact of the Eurozone crisis on national foreign policy. Both, we contend, remain relatively neglected topics in the literature.

East Meets Black: Asian and Black Masculinities in the Post–Civil Rights EraRacial Reconstruction: Black Inclusion, Chinese Exclusion, and the Fictions of Citizenship

East Meets Black: Asian and Black Masculinities in the Post–Civil Rights EraRacial Reconstruction: Black Inclusion, Chinese Exclusion, and the Fictions of Citizenship

Turkey’s security understanding and its relation with the European Union in the 1990s

ABSTRACTWhile the end of the Cold War challenged the classical understanding of national security in Europe, Turkey continued to follow a national security-centered and confrontational foreign policy during the 1990s due to its internal and external security problems. Although this created important differences in security understandings and policies between Turkey and the European Union (EU), Turkey continued to seek EU membership during the 1990s. The goal of this paper is to answer why Turkey was willing to join the EU in the 1990s despite its difficulty in balancing its relations with the EU with its security problems. The main conclusion of the paper is that Turkey’s eagerness to join the EU during the 1990s can be explained by both the perception of EU membership as the most appropriate and desired policy for Turkey and Turkey’s eagerness to ensure its political and security objectives.

КУЛЬТУРНАЯ ДИПЛОМАТИЯ КИТАЯ В ЦЕНТРАЛЬНОЙ АЗИИ В XXI ВЕКЕ НА ПРИМЕРЕ ИНСТИТУТОВ КОНФУЦИЯ

The article provides analysis of Chinese cultural diplomacy in the 21st century in the context of Confucius Institutes in Central Asia, and describes the formation process of cultural foreign policy in Beijing based on the materials of the 17-th and 18-th Congresses of Chinese Communist party. In this paper, a cultural diplomacy is clearly defined on the basis of Western scientists’ public diplomatic theories. Among the goals of cultural diplomacy in the national foreign policy there is a sound image on the world stage. This paper highlights main ideas of the Confucianism and makes emphasis on the fundamental role of the Confucius thought in the formation and improvement of China’s cultural diplomatic system. Special attention is paid to the study of Confucius institutes network in Central Asia, including in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Learning Chinese language and organizing cultural events within Confucius Institutes are the main ways to spread Chinese culture abroad. The author comes to a conclusion that establishment of Confucius institutes in Central Asia is a result of active China’s cultural diplomacy. The Confucius Institute as a tool for disseminating Chinese culture promotes a positive image of China on the international arena and contributes to enhancing a mutual understanding between the peoples of China and other countries. Cultural diplomacy as one of the elements of soft power has contributed to enhancing the Beijing's influence in the regional and global dimensions and strengthening cooperation of China with other countries.

Netanyahu's Populism: An Overlooked Explanation for Israeli Foreign Policy

When discussing the current wave of sweeping the globe, there are certain names one expects to hear—Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, or Brexit. Benjamin Netanyahu is not among them, but perhaps he should be. Since 2009, the Israeli Prime Minister has pushed his nation further to the political right than at any point in Israel's nearly seven decades of existence. He has done this through a set of political tactics that bears a close resemblance to those currently employed by some of the world's most prominent leaders. While Netanyahu has not escaped criticism, both at home and abroad, for his conduct as Israeli Prime Minister, he has avoided some of the harsher judgments levied against more notable figures identified with the movement, including the label of populist itself. Nevertheless, Netanyahu's actions, particularly in the realm of foreign policy, offer some of the best examples of how leaders operate once in power and the effects such actions can have in the global political arena. Using Jan-Werner Muller's interpretation of populism as a guide, this paper applies the lessons of leadership to Netanyahu's political style as Israeli Prime Minister. In doing so, it illustrates the ways in which politics can shape national foreign policy and affect the global order.

ПРЕЗИДЕНТСЬКІ ВИБОРИ 2016 Р. В США І АМЕРИКАНСЬКА ЗОВНІШНЬОПОЛІТИЧНА СТРАТЕГІЯ

Presidential campaign 2016, given its degree of mutual mistrust and major candidates' profiles, was among the most unusual in the American history. However both H. Clinton and D. Trump managed to formulate quite lucidly their approaches to the national foreign policy strategy. Despite widely spread belief in incompatibility of the platforms of the two leaders competing for the Oval Office, they had a lot of common in their strategic perspectives. Both vehemently argued in favor of America's active world role and shared opinion about the importance of global developments for the wellbeing of common Americans. On the other hand real differences between the strategic paradigms of the two leaders did have place. H. Clinton represented the worldview rooted mainly in her husband's presidential foreign policy, it could be categorized as more proactive version of B. Obama's liberal globalism. On his part D. Trump put forward set of messages that appeared to be a new version of the long standing US global strategy made adaptable to the changed American public moods and the realities of the early 21st century world. Some of his messages sounded like remake of old themes harking back to the times between two World Wars. Yet not clear enough Republican candidate's blueprint contained ideas which could lead to one of the most unconventional and stylistically innovative, if not exotic, presidential international strategies ever known in the American history. Immediate reaction to the election results from Z. Brzezinski and H. Kissinger – two major national authorities in the field of international strategy -- supported the presumption about the expectable differences between D. Trump's electoral rhetoric and his steering of the American foreign policy from the White House. However presidential race 2016 left more questions open than answered when the forthcoming national international strategy is concerned. Thus the initial period of D. Trump presidency had all chances to become the time of prolonged and uneasy efforts of America to make its world strategy compatible with the increasingly complex world.

Anti-West frames dominate Afghan war news coverage

A content analysis of war-specific frames used by Soviet mainstream newspapers Izvestia and Komsomolskaya Pravda during the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan revealed that the national political system and foreign policy heavily influenced war reporting in the pre-Gorbachev era. In a censored environment, a highly polarized approach framed the West as the enemy and the USSR as the supporter of the Afghan people.

Przywódcy polityczni: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De – przestrzeń współpracy i rywalizacji

This lecture includes an attempt to answer the question: what the connection of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De was, and what conditions contributed to the fact that both Zhou Enlai and Zhu De did not share the fate of the political opponents of Mao Zedong, inter alia Liu Shaoqi, Wang Ming, Gao Gang and others. Recognizing the political reality of China of the period from the creation of the CPC to the death of the heroes, the synthetic approach shows their resumes, and an attempt was taken to involve the most important facts to answer the questions, inter alia about civil, war of national liberation, domestic and foreign policy of China implemented in accordance with the provisions of the Communist Party of China and the role of the heroes in shaping the cultural and civilisation order after the declaration of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Staging the Silk Road Journey Abroad: The Case of Dunhuang Performative Arts

Staging the Silk Road Journey Abroad: The Case of Dunhuang Performative Arts

Enactment processes in the implementation of European and national foreign language proficiency policies

This article presents an analysis of the implementation of EU policies for foreign language proficiency, focusing on Spanish as an optional school subject at the Swedish school system. It analyses frame factors that constrain such implementation and enactment processes in local interpretation of policy. European and national education policy documents, national statistics and interviews with teachers and stakeholders are analysed. Spanish is popular among pupils, but nonetheless pupil achievement is poor and dropout rates are high. The lack of qualified teachers of Spanish accounts for a large proportion of this, and teacher education seems to be a decisive curricular factor for a successful implementation of EU policies. In-service training strategies for teachers of Spanish are a low priority among local educational authorities. There is a mismatch between state responsibility for teacher education on one side and local needs of teacher supply and responsibility for in-service training on the other.

The Belt and Road Initiative and its Implications for China-Europe Relations

The EU brought out a Global Strategy for foreign and security policy in June 2016, which indicates European efforts to reflect on and reshape its grand strategy. Meanwhile, China is also conducting an in-depth assessment of the international order under transition, and strives to rebalance its own national development and foreign policies. Beijing is pursuing a connectivity-oriented grand strategy. The peaceful rise of China depends on whether China and other economies can fully leverage each other’s development opportunities, and become stronger by taking advantage of increasing interconnectedness in the world. The One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative is a key element of such a grand strategy and will have far-reaching implications for China-Europe relations.

Refusing to be Sidelined: The Engagement of the FinnishEduskuntain Foreign Affairs

It is often argued that foreign and security policy is dominated by the executive, with parliaments wielding marginal influence. However, as legislative‐executive relations in the realm of foreign and security policy have attracted remarkably little scholarly attention, there is a demand for subjecting the alleged executive drift in foreign affairs to careful empirical scrutiny. There is also a need to examine whether and how parliamentary politics in foreign affairs differs from domestic or European matters, both regarding control mechanisms and party competition. The notions of ‘executive dominance’ and ‘politics stopping at the water's edge’ certainly point in the direction of less active control and casting aside public partisan differences in favour of providing domestic support for the government. A case study of the FinnishEduskuntaforces us to reconsider such arguments. This article examines the multiple instruments members of parliament (MPs) have for becoming involved in foreign affairs, from participating in the formulation of the national ‘grand strategy’ document to ministerial hearings in the committees. It also provides strong evidence of the Europeanization of national foreign policies, with matters relating to the foreign policy and external relations of the European Union (EU) in a central role in the Foreign Affairs Committee. Parliamentary culture is consensual, especially in security policy, but there is nonetheless greater room and willingness for party‐political contestation in foreign affairs.