State Elites Research Articles

Unravelling the EU’s promotional integration strategy in the MENA region: a dialectical analysis of the Agadir and GAFTA Agreements

Given the rhetoric of the EU on the necessity of economic integration for the MENA region, this article sheds light on the ‘puzzling’ fragmentation in its regional integration strategy through the cases of the GAFTA and Agadir Agreements. It problematises mainstream analyses and employs a dialectical approach based on the philosophy of internal relations, aiming to surpass existing critical literature that has only partially illuminated facets of the EU’s strategy. The article situates the EU strategy within the dynamics of neoliberal capitalism (and its interconnected tensions) and considers its spatial and temporal scales. It argues that the complex interplay of developments at the EU scale, global competition scale and MENA scale across three distinct time frames (1995–2003, 2004–11, 2012–21) has shaped the EU’s fragmented strategy. On the EU scale, while Brussels presents itself as a leading proponent of neoliberal ideology for global market openness, it strategically elevates the Agadir Agreement at the expense of the GAFTA to meet its economic needs. The global competitive dynamics, however, have constrained this preference, as the EU has been contested by the US in the Agadir Agreement area and China and, to a lesser extent, Russia in other GAFTA member states. Lastly, the agency of MENA states has been noticeable, since the EU encounters difficulties in influencing GAFTA’s regulatory framework and dealing with the diverse interests of state elites in the region. We conclude that the dialectical method of the article holds promise for analysing the regional integration strategies of other global powers.

The View of Christian Authors on the Practice of Devshirme in the 16th Century Ottoman Empire

The paper examines how various 16th century Christian sources (the vitae of the Balkan martyrs and the notes of Western travelers) reflect one of the cruelest practices of the Ottoman Empire: It is the so-called devshirme or «blood tax» – a system of forced recruitment of Christian boys for their conversion to Islam, upbringing in Turkish culture and subsequent transformation into faithful servants of sultan – soldiers of the Janissary corps or civil servants. Author of the South Slavic vitae of St. George the New of Sophia warns his Christian readers against the dangers of devshirme, as the main character of the vitae even had to leave his native home in order not to become a janissary and to keep his faith. The South Slavic scribe is echoed by the author of the Russian vitae of St. George the New: he conveys a frightening description of devshirme as the most terrible atrocity of the «Hagaren tsars» – for the sake of the sultan’s «honors» Christian children forget their faith and turn into faithful servants of a foreign religion. More detailed descriptions of devshirme are found in the writings left by Western travelers and diplomats who visited the Ottoman empire in the 16th century. They also talk about the horrors of the «blood tax», but more focus on how the Christians of the Ottoman Empire tried to avoid this heavy levy, as well as on the fact that some Christians themselves were ready to give their children to the Ottoman sultans in order to provide them with better social standing in the future. Western authors do not ignore some of the abuses of the Ottoman authorities in collecting the «blood tax» in the second half of the 16th century, that can be explained by negative trends in the development of the Ottoman state in this period. Despite all of this, many European travelers and diplomats talk about the meritocratic approach of the Ottoman authorities to the formation of the state elite, which is partly expressed in devshirme. The Western authors find this approach as one of the main reasons for the success of the 16th-century Ottoman expansion.

Герб на графское Российской империи достоинство и его версии генерала от кавалерии, атамана Донского Войска графа М.И. Платова

The coat of arms and its versions of Count M.I. Platov are considered for the first time in the scientific literature, their origin, composition, symbolism, role and significance in consolidating the image of a cavalry general, a military ataman of the Don Army in the historical memory of the peoples of Russia and Europe. The highly approved coat of arms of M.I. Platov, little known to contemporaries, was distributed in independent, attributed versions, which played an important role in visualization, strengthening the authority of the “whirlwind chieftain”. It is proven that these versions are unconfirmed and are closely connected with the processes of formation of historical memory and public consciousness in Russia. The versions of the Count's coat of arms of M.I. Platov retained heraldic continuity but were complemented with new figures that revealed the pages of his military and civil service, the relations of the Don Ataman with crowned persons, the military and state elite of Russia and Europe. It is emphasized that the versions of the coats of arms are at the same time independent heraldic and artistic works. According to the authors of the unapproved coats of arms, the awards, additions and changes included in them raised and consolidated the high status of the coat of arms holders, showed their role and merits in the history of Russia. The coat of arms portraits and versions of the coat of arms of Count M.I. Platov reflected the ideas of his contemporaries about his role in the history of the country, the process of formation of the Don nobili-ty, and the state of the heraldic tradition in Russia. Independent, unapproved coats of arms were an important stage in the development of Russian heraldic studies: some are still a kind of reminder of “famous names and events”, others were used primarily to solve personal, property and social problems over the course of one generation and became historical facts in the lives of the coat of arms holders. The coat of arms engraved portrait of M.I. Platov and versions of coats of arms go back to the Don painting and coat of arms tradition of the second half of the 18th – early 19th century. They, preserving artistic and compositional features, are part of the Don and Russian military portrait, Russian heraldry.

Compassionate Occupation: Yongzheng’s Purposes for Relocating the Qing Garrison Away from Lhasa

Abstract At the Kangxi emperor’s command, Qing troops occupied Lhasa in 1720. The Yongzheng emperor withdrew them shortly after his accession. This apparent reversal of Kangxi’s policy toward Tibet has been characterized as rushed and ill-considered. Yet, in his edict sent to inform the Dalai lama of the garrison’s relocation, Yongzheng stressed that his decision was meant as a continuation of his father’s intentions toward Tibet. Focusing on the emperor’s consideration for popular support and different strategies of Qing control, this paper argues that Yongzheng’s decision was aimed at preserving a strategy originating in the 1690s, aimed at routing power away from the position of the Dalai lama, by the gradual inclusion of local elites of the Khoshud-Tibetan state into the Qing hierarchy, with the goal of extending Qing control over Tibet. The relocation of the garrison was a prerequisite to the continuation of Kangxi’s policy, rather than its abrogation.

“Françafrique” Systemic Crisis

Recent global geopolitical shifts have deformed the postwar world order. These tectonic shifts mark the beginning of the end of French dominance in West and Central Africa, changing dramatically the layout of international relations in the region that has always been considered France’s zone of interests. There is a rapid degradation and disintegration of the French military-political system known as “Françafrique”, the essence of which lies in the latent ties between the corrupt elites of the Fifth Republic and certain African countries that are dependent on their former metropole both economically and politically. The purpose of this article is to examine the collapse of this system as a whole and its constituent parts in order to come closer to understanding how the destruction of its individual fragments causes the crisis of interconnected structural elements of the entire system. Within the framework of a short article, it is only possible to outline a general approach to considering the problematic situation, based on the theoretical and methodological approach, which implies a systemic analysis of the object, i.e., the phenomenon of “Françafrique”. Recently, a number of works have appeared devoted to various aspects of this problem (the change of elites in African states, the disappointment in the effectiveness of the former metropole’s Africa policy, the reduction of the French military presence in the Sahel and Central Africa, the failure of the military operation Barkhane, the collapse of the Fifth Republic-inspired military-political blocs of African countries). The novelty and relevance of this work lie in demonstrating the need to study these trends in their integrity and interrelationship. This approach requires a comprehensive study of the causes, course, results, and consequences of the collapse of the military-political system of “Françafrique” as part of a future large-scale study of this phenomenon.

Conceptualising energy nationalism in the context of climate change: framework and review

This article argues that the more energy policies are circumscribed within the borders of individual nation states, the more difficult it will be to implement the climate action on a global scale. The authors shed light on the relationship between nationalism and the simultaneous challenges of environmental protection, energy transition and climate change mitigation. Based on the review of various publications referring to nationalism in the context of energy policy and energy transition, the authors conceptualise this notion. Energy nationalism is defined here as any political decision, economic action and ideological justifications used to circumscribe energy policy within the nation state and subordinate it to “national interests,” “national security” and the “protection of national sovereignty.” Energy nationalism should be distinguished from both economic nationalism and resource nationalism, yet they are part of a continuum, in which economic considerations are upheld in the pursuit of strict national “interests” and, therefore, of the ruling elites in each nation state. The article explores the differences and mutual interconnections between the three. It finally explains why the notion of energy nationalism may better render the ongoing conflict between resource-focused elites and the international community–particularly in the context of the current climate emergency.

Princely prisons, state exhibitions, and Muslim industrial authority in colonial India

Abstract This article analyses the prison industries and state industrial exhibitions of three Indian princely states in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tracing how princely elites sought to develop distinct labouring and industrial cultures. Drawing on examples from three Muslim-led princely states, namely Rampur, Bhopal, and Hyderabad, the article argues that state elites distinguished their forms of cultural and religious authority from that of the British Raj by coercing and displaying new industrial practices. They aimed to cultivate an industrial modernity that could compete with colonial projects while also promoting what they characterised as Indian Muslim characteristics and courtly traditions for artisan labourers and their work. The article asks how princely elites worked to conscript their subjects—including marginalised subjects such as convict labourers—into visions of regional industrial authority. Princely visions of Muslim and courtly industrial futures in Rampur, Bhopal, and Hyderabad were rooted in the attempts of state administrators to fashion distinctive regional identities and assert authority in a context of circumscribed, quasi-colonial rulership. Industrial cultures associated with princely prisons and exhibitions ultimately exceeded the bounds of these projects, placing pressure on other state subjects to adopt new material practices and engage with state-defined regional craft traditions.

Grievance Politics and Technocracy in a Developmental State: Healthcare Policy Reforms in Singapore

ABSTRACTThis article uses a process‐tracing approach to understand changes in Singapore's health sector from the start of self‐rule in 1959 to the end of the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2022. Singapore is a developmental state recognized for its effective management of healthcare costs and its lack of political freedom. In both respects, the ‘Singapore model’ is of interest to other cities and nations. The standard narrative is one of technocratic proficiency in a context in which civic freedoms are heavily constrained, but this article identifies the surprisingly important role of social voices at key moments. It finds episodes in which effective changes to social policies are not the product of a state embedded in an organized society, but rather are influenced by the independent organizational capacity of certain social groups providing inputs to state elites on social grievances and policy needs. Effective policy changes require a responsive state elite that — even if it is technocratically dominated, as is the case in Singapore — can listen to social claims and provide answers that are not repressive. The article conceptualizes these dynamics as ‘grievance politics’ and shows their role in explaining health reforms. It contributes to understanding global health systems and policy making in developmental states by a fruitful cross‐fertilization with social movement studies.

Crypto-Atlanticism: The untold preferences of policy elites in neutral and non-aligned states

ABSTRACT The existing scholarship shows that neutral and non-aligned countries in Europe closely and often covertly engage with NATO despite their official posture. However, we lack comparative insights into how this phenomenon plays out in various countries. To understand this phenomenon of crypto-Atlanticism (CA) better we develop a framework to capture variations depending on the strength of elites’ Atlanticist preferences and their perceptions of public opinion’s preferences for neutrality. We illustrate our framework with evidence from twenty-four interviews with policy elites from Austria, Serbia and Sweden conducted between 2020 and 2022. Our findings show that elites exhibited various forms of CA: while the strength of Atlanticism is stronger in Austria and Sweden than in Serbia, the degree of restriction in publicly expressing these preferences was less restrained in Sweden than in Austria and Serbia. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of our findings for the theory and practice of military neutrality.

Rentierism, ‘Capitalist Breakthroughs’ and Non-Transformative Development in Late Putinism

This essay explores ‘territories of accelerated development’ (TORs) to reconstruct the economic policy-making, development institutions and macroeconomic framework of late Putinism since the 2010s. It argues that even with Russia’s integration into the world economy and the developmental rhetoric of state elites, TORs and the national developmental regime around them reproduce the patronal management and recycling of rents rather than the transformative and state-permeated facilitation of productive investments and capitalist profits. This upscaling of rents has been systemic. The result—rentierism—challenges common understandings of rent-seeking and commodity rents as incidental features of Russian ‘state capitalism’, and, instead places them at the centre of a non-capitalist order of its own.

Becoming a humanitarian state: A performative analysis of ‘status-seeking’ as statecraft in world politics

AbstractStatus-seeking is ubiquitous in world politics, and the literature is currently dominated by state-centrism and rationalism, which is almost exclusively focus on state elites. This results in a thin and limited understanding of what ‘status-seeking’ is, where it works, and how it is effected. This article challenges the existing approaches by introducing a performativity framework and offers an overhaul of how ‘status’ can be studied. It suggests replacing ‘status-seeking’ with ‘status performances’ that are conceptualised as part of ‘statecraft’ process. Drawing on post-structuralist and queer approaches as well as aesthetics in International Relations (IR), it is argued that status performances participate in the production of the state itself as a subject in world politics, so all states are ‘status-seekers’. This subject-production process occurs in multiple political sites, including the academic IR discourse in a country and visual presentations in the media. It is concluded that there is no ‘status’ beyond the subject, and status can never be achieved because it always needs repetitive performances. The argument is illustrated by an analysis of the production of ‘Turkey’ as a humanitarian state and demonstrates how this is effected in state-elite pronouncements, IR scholarship in Turkey, and visual representations.

Power struggle on subjectivity and foreign policy: a post-structuralist analysis of JDP’s policies towards the United States (2002–2016)

ABSTRACT This article analyses Turkish foreign policy towards the United States (US) during the Justice and Development Party (JDP) era by using a post-structuralist approach. Post-structuralism posits that foreign policy is a political practice reflecting domestic power struggles. Moreover, subjectivities and foreign policy practices are neither universal, objective, nor predetermined, since they are co-constitutive. From this theoretical perspective, the article explores the JDP’s 'foreign policy' discourse on US-Turkish relations, highlighting discursive practices in legitimising specific subjectivities, such as 'conservative' and 'Muslim' ones, as 'inherent' origins of foreign policy conduct. In two phases, 2002–2009 and 2009–2016, it analyses how changes in JDP’s foreign policy preferences towards the US function to legitimise or marginalise particular subjectivities in its power struggle vis-à-vis 'Kemalist' state elites. Ultimately, the article concludes that the JDP’s discourse exhibits a continuity in hegemonising the 'Islamic' subjectivity ascribed to the Turkish population, despite changes in foreign policy decisions.

Non-Western engagement in peace processes and the rise of ‘hedging’ by elites in conflict-affected states

Analysing the peace processes of Nepal and Myanmar, this article argues that the changing landscape of peacebuilding support to conflict-affected states(CAS) marked by multiple international actors is increasing the bargaining leverage of elites in CAS to shape post-conflict institutions in their favour. It highlights that multiple and competing forms of international engagement allow elites in CAS not only to ‘co-opt’ international support as widely discussed in peace studies but also undertake multiple strategies categorised cumulatively as ‘hedging’- to harness distinct benefits from varied international actors, exploit the differences between multiple international institutional prescripts, and offset dependency on one by aligning with another. These strategies enhance the agency of elites to resist Western pressures to adapt liberal reforms and instead shape post-conflict institutional outcomes in their favour. Such resistance fosters ‘illiberal’ institutions where elites renege on critical pledges of the peace process on inclusion and security sector reform to protect their interests.

From Rents to Welfare: Why Are Some Oil-Rich States Generous to Their People?

Why do some, but not all oil-rich states provide generous welfare to their populations? Building on a case study of Oman in the 1960s and 1970s, we argue that anti-systemic subversive threats motivate ruling elites in oil states to use welfare as a tool of mass co-optation. We use the generalized synthetic control method and difference-in-difference regressions for a global quantitative test of our argument, assessing the effect of different types of subversion on a range of long-term welfare outcomes in oil-rich and oil-poor states. We demonstrate that the positive effect of subversion appears limited to center-seeking subversive threats in oil-rich countries. The paper addresses a key puzzle in the literature on resource-rich states, which makes contradictory predictions about the impact of resource rents on welfare provision.

The Future of Arab Democracy under the Rentier System: The Case of Sudan

The rentier economy has long been an important source of power for autocratic regimes, serving as a key tool for Arab authoritarianism. Rentierism is a grave matter as it not only hinders economic liberalisation, but it also disrupts the development of democracy. Following the political economy literature that demonstrates an inverse correlation between democracy and rentierism and shows the responsibility of political systems for the emergence of rentier practices, this paper examines how ruling elites in Arab states use rents to buttress their authoritarian regimes and obstruct the building of a democratic society. To better understand the factors that shape and sustain the rentier system, the paper focuses on the case of Sudan, where rentierism is deeply embedded. The paper sheds light on the challenges impeding the transfer of power from the military establishment to civilian elites, given the resilience of the rentier economy and the prevalence of negative practices that strengthen authoritarianism, such as the spread of clientelism and endemic levels of corruption. The paper concludes that it is impossible to build a democratic system in the shadow of the rentier structure. It also discusses ways to dismantle the rentier economy in Sudan to ensure the emergence of a productive state by moving beyond the rentier social contract to a new social pact.

The Role of Narratives for Gaining Domestic Political Legitimacy: China’s Image Management during COVID-19

Crises constitute ideal opportunities for authoritarian leaders to promote certain narratives, shaping reality in their favor and crafting their own preferred storylines about current events. In other words: they serve authoritarian leaders on a silver platter the opportunity to instrumentalize these unforeseen circumstances to gain domestic political legitimacy by promoting strategic narratives. The COVID-19 pandemic was no exception in this regard. Ever since its onset in early 2020, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was among the most active actors worldwide seeking to capitalize on the global crisis for legitimation purposes. Whether applying narratives of governance supremacy, portraying the People’s Republic of China as a “global savior,” or promoting emotionally appealing nationalistic narratives, the regime used the pandemic as a window of opportunity to rebrand its international role and enhance its domestic legitimacy. When observing the CCP’s communication style over the course of 24 pandemic months (2020–2022), however, major shifts become apparent regarding the main narratives crafted in communication with national audiences. Based on this, the paper focuses on the role of such narratives for legitimation claims. Using exemplary media articles collected between the outbreak of the pandemic in China in late 2019 until the harsh Shanghai lockdown in spring 2022, it thus traces the narratives employed by Chinese state elites and explores how they are intertwined with nationalism and broader power claims.

“When there is no money, that is when I vomit blood”: the domino effect and the unfettered lethal exploitation of Black labor on Dominican sugar plantations

BackgroundIn this article, I utilize the concept of the Plantationocene as an analytical framework to generate a holistic and historical understanding of the present-day struggles of a mostly Haitian migrant workforce on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic.MethodsInspired by Paul Farmer’s methodology, I combine political economy, history, and ethnography approaches to interpret the experiences of sugarcane cutters across historical and contemporary iterations of colonial, post-colonial, and neo-colonial practices over the course of five centuries.ResultsMy findings elucidate the enduring power of capitalism, implicating corporate and state elites, as the structural scaffolding for acts of racialized violence that condition the life-and-death circumstances of Black laborers on Caribbean plantations to this day. Although today’s sugarcane cutters may suffer differently than their enslaved or wage labor ancestors on the plantation, I argue that an unfettered racialized pattern of lethal exploitation is sustained through the structural violence of neoliberalism that links present conditions with the colonial past.ConclusionsUltimately, this paper contributes understandings of the plantationocene’s enduring effects in the global south by demonstrating how imperialist arrangements of capitalism are not a distant memory from the colonial past but instead are present yet hidden and obscured while relocated and reanimated overseas to countries like the Dominican Republic, where American capitalists still exploit Black bodies for profit and power.

Every Day I Write the Book

Every Day I Write the Book

Anticipatory historical geographies of violence: Imagining, mapping, and integrating Dersim into the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish state, 1866–1939

Any understanding of the transformation from indirect imperial to centralized nation-state rule must consider the complex interplay between knowledge production, sovereignty, and power, as well as the historical geographies that shape them. As such, this article focuses on Middle Eastern modern-state formation through the case of Dersim, a region in contemporary Turkey's Eastern Anatolia, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It delves deeply into Dersim's intricate dynamics to examine the changing relationship between state and territory through the perspective of government authorities, Western travelers, and local inhabitants. The article argues that the Turkish state's violent transformation of nonstate Dersim in 1937–38 marked a peak in the process of creating a flattened, homogeneous territory where sovereignty would be implemented effectively and, ideally, equally. This process began in Dersim, and the larger region around it, with the implementation of the Ottoman Tanzimat Reforms in the early nineteenth century, gained momentum with the 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War, and reached its culmination with genocidal operations in Dersim in the late 1930s. The state elites' instrumentalization of modern cartography, among other technological advancements, for military purposes allowed them to envision, define, and reshape Dersim as an integral part of their imagined national homeland.

Analysis of Indonesian Economic Development: Case Study Mining Business in Papua Province

This paper will analyze modernization and dependency theory in Freeport business towards economic development in Papua. This study also aims to understand the historical background of Freeport Indonesia, particularly Indonesia's political government relation with this business and its social impact. This study uses a qualitative method with historical and descriptive research. After field observation, interview, and document review, this study found that the Marxism perspective is relevant to Freeport's business that develops good relations with the Indonesian state elite to secure their business in Papua. Soeharto's government was contradictory to John Locke's theory to protect people's rights. Due to the inability to maintain performance legitimacy proved by human rights violence and economic recession, a mass demonstration led to democratization and over Soeharto regime. Last, Papua's economic development remains in the traditional stage and strong dependency on Freeport Business.