National Role Conception as Foreign Policy Motivation: The Psychocultural Bases of Chinese Diplomacy

1988 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-yu Shih
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
Chinese Diplomacy ◽  
Policy Motivation

South African Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Nganje ◽  
Odilile Ayodele
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South African ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
The Government

In its foreign policy posture and ambitions, post-apartheid South Africa is like no other country on the continent, having earned the reputation of punching above its weight. Upon rejoining the international community in the mid-1990s based on a new democratic and African identity, it laid out and invested considerable material and intellectual resources in pursuing a vision of the world that was consistent with the ideals and aspirations of the indigenous anti-apartheid movement. This translated into a commitment to foreground the ideals of human rights, democratic governance, and socioeconomic justice in its foreign relations, which had been reoriented away from their Western focus during the apartheid period, to give expression to post-apartheid South Africa’s new role conception as a champion of the marginalized interests for Africa and rest of the Global South. Since the start of the 21st century, this new foreign policy orientation and its underlying principles have passed through various gradations, reflecting not only the personal idiosyncrasies of successive presidents but also changes in the domestic environment as well as lessons learned by the new crop of leaders in Pretoria, as they sought to navigate a complex and fluid continental and global environment. From a rather naive attempt to domesticate international politics by projecting its constitutional values onto the world stage during the presidency of Nelson Mandela, South Africa would be socialized into, and embrace gradually, the logic of realpolitik, even as it continued to espouse an ethical foreign policy, much to the chagrin of the detractors of the government of the African National Congress within and outside the country. With the fading away of the global liberal democratic consensus into which post-apartheid South Africa was born, coupled with a crumbling of the material and moral base that had at some point inspired a sense of South African exceptionalism, Pretoria’s irreversible march into an unashamedly pragmatic and interest-driven foreign policy posture is near complete.

The Europeanization of Swedish Foreign Policy and Beyond

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Brommesson
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Role Change ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
Role Conceptions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Point Of Departure

This chapter analyzes the role conceptions of Swedish foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. The chapter’s point of departure is a theoretical framework based on role theory, including the scope conditions for role change and the possibility of the Europeanization of foreign policy roles. Based on a reading of previous studies of Swedish foreign policy and primary sources, the chapter first analyzes how Swedish foreign policy role conception was Europeanized during the 1990s and early 2000s. Secondly, it examines how this Europeanized role was subsequently complemented by a reemerging Nordic one. The conclusion of the chapter is that Sweden’s foreign policy role conception today is characterized by multiple roles.

Roles, identity, and security: foreign policy contestation in monarchical Kuwait

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Yom
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Major Response ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
Historical Role

The 2011–2012 Arab Spring posed an existential threat to the Gulf Cooperation Council’s six monarchies. A major response was the 2012 GCC Internal Security Pact, an innovative project to enhance cross-border repression of domestic opposition and thus bolster collective security. Yet despite its historic weakness, ongoing domestic unrest, and initial enthusiasm for the agreement, Kuwait’s monarchy did not ultimately ratify the accord. Building on theories of foreign policy roles and identity, this article presents an ideational explanation for this puzzle. The Security Pact failed because it sparked identity contestation. For many Kuwaitis, the prospect of the Sabah monarchy imposing this scheme for greater repression was incompatible with the regime’s historical role of tolerating domestic pluralism and protecting Kuwait from foreign pressures. This role conception of a tolerant protector flowed from historical understandings and collective memory and was cognitively tied to a national self-conception of “Kuwaiti-ness.” The mobilizational scope and symbolic power of this popular opposition convinced the regime to acquiesce, despite possessing the strategic incentive and resources to impose the treaty by force. The Kuwaiti case therefore exemplifies how domestic contestation over regime identities and roles can constrain foreign policy behavior, even in authoritarian states facing severe crises of insecurity.

scholarly journals CHINA'S FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS MYANMAR: A ROLE MODEL IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2021 ◽  
pp. 07-17
Author(s):  
Mohamad Zreik
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Strategic Factors ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy ◽  
Chinese Diplomacy

China has a large and professional diplomatic team spread all over the world. Chinese diplomacy mainly relies on soft power in its relations with international partners. Despite the unified outlines, Chinese foreign policy differs from one country to another, depending on the geographical location, the political system and the volume of trade exchange. Chinese foreign policy has gone through many stages, most notably the period of Mao Zedong who strictly applied the rules of socialism, and the period of Deng Xiaoping, known for its reform and openness policy, thus establishing a modern and more flexible Chinese system. President Xi Jinping's term is an extension of Deng Xiaoping's rule of thumb, but with more openness to international partners and economic expansion, especially with the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. This paper deals with China's foreign policy towards Myanmar, and refers to the development of bilateral relations and China's interest in a distinguished relationship with Myanmar. The research indicates the strategic factors that make China interested in developing the relationship with Myanmar.

Historical–Geopolitical Contexts and the Transformation of Chinese Foreign Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Flint ◽  
Zhang Xiaotong
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Capitalist World Economy ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
China’S Foreign Policy ◽  
World Systems Analysis ◽  
Chinese Diplomacy ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Geopolitical Context

Abstract In the past few years, China has made dramatic foreign policy decisions that have changed both the global landscape and the behaviour of other states. To understand fully the possibilities and limitations of China’s foreign policy, it is important to see its occurrences within geopolitical contexts. The main argument of this article is that geopolitical context must be theorised in order to understand the decisions of states. We define a political geography perspective within a world-systems analysis that creates a Space–Time matrix of context based on the core–periphery hierarchy of the capitalist world economy and economic and hegemonic cycles. Inspired by Chinese scholars and policymakers’ periodisations of Chinese diplomacy, we develop a new periodisation of Chinese diplomatic cycles from 1840 to 2039. Using this new periodisation of Chinese diplomacy, we situate the changing nature of Chinese foreign policy within our Space–Time matrix. We then evaluate the possibilities and challenges of China’s current foreign policy, with emphasis on the Belt and Road Initiative, by illustrating features of the contemporary geopolitical context. Finally, we discuss the implications of this for contemporary Chinese foreign policy.

Change or Consistency? A Historical Overview of South Africa's Post-apartheid Foreign Policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lona Gqiza
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
African Continent ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
African Region ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Thabo Mbeki

This study examines the trajectory of South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy by establishing the extent of change or consistency in its implementation since 1994. Under the ruling African National Congress (ANC), South Africa has emerged as a promising international actor, particularly within the Southern African region and on the African continent in general. The authors provide a historical analysis of the major trajectories of foreign policy articulation under the administrations of Presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma spanning the period 1994 to 2018. In investigating the conception and execution of foreign policy under these dispensations, the authors unravel a consistent but skewed pattern of national role conception that underscores Pretoria’s vision to be a major actor in international affairs, both regionally and globally. We conclude that South Africa’s foreign policy during this period was marked by Mandela’s altruism, Mbeki’s Afrocentrism and the antediluvian signature of Zuma.

Vietnam War and India, 1965–6

2019 ◽  
pp. 222-265
Author(s):  
Zorawar Daulet Singh
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Asian Crisis ◽  
Indian Politics ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Policy Shifts ◽  
Significant Flux

Even though the escalation of the Vietnam war was the most significant Asian crisis of the 1960s, we rarely ever think about Indian diplomacy during this conflict. But what makes the second Indochina crisis of 1965–6 particularly interesting is that the post-Nehruvian foreign policy shifts vividly reflected in the contestations and debates on India’s posture and strategy towards the Vietnam war. Hence, we will be able to evaluate Indira Gandhi’s foreign policy in the extended neighbourhood very early in her tenure when domestic rivals contested her leadership and authority at a time of significant flux in Indian politics. In many ways, this phase marks the final displacement of Nehru’s peacemaker role conception with an alternative security seeker role.

Foreign Policy Motivation

1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 901
Author(s):  
Edward L. Morse ◽  
Richard W. Cottam
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Motivation

scholarly journals Constructing bridges and fostering growth: Interdisciplinary insights into European Union conceptions and perceptions

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Eu Foreign Policy ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Role Conception ◽  
Role Conceptions ◽  
The Eu

This article studies the EU’s role conceptions and projections towards its Eastern Neighbourhood, and Ukraine specifically. Informed by the novel focus on narratives and emotions in International Relations (IR) theory and in EU foreign policy studies, we propose an innovative interdisciplinary synergy between IR’s role theory [Harnisch et al. 2011; Holsti, 1970] and cognitive linguistics’ conceptual metaphor theory [Lakoff and Johnson 1980]. Using the tool of conceptual metaphor, we systemically explore the EU’s role conception (self-image) as well as its perception and expectations of the Eastern partners (role prescriptions). In doing so, we put forward a new method to systemically analyse cognitive and emotive elements in the EU’s foreign policy roles based on the notion that conceptual metaphors reveal fundamental cognitive and emotional traits central to the roles actors play. Empirically, we analyse the EU Global Strategy (June 2016) and the EU Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit’s Official Memorandum (November 2017), as well as 12 interviews with EU practitioners dealing with Ukraine (conducted in 2017).

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