scholarly journals The second image reversed: the international sources of domestic politics

1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 881-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gourevitch

The international system is not only an expression of domestic structures, but a cause of them. Two schools of analysis exploring the impact of the international system upon domestic politics (regime types, institutions, coalitions, policies) may be distinguished: those which stress the international economy, and those which stress political-military rivalry, or war. Among the former are such arguments as: late industrialization (associated with Gershenkron); dependencia or core-periphery arguments (Wallerstein); liberal development model (much American writing in the 50s and 60s); transnational relation-modernization (Nye, Keohane, Morse); neo-mercantilists (Gilpin); state-centered Marxists (Schurmann). Arguments stressing the role of war include those which focus on the organizational requirements of providing security (Hintze, Anderson), the special nature of foreign relations (classical political theory), territorial compensation (diplomatic history), and strains of foreign involvement (analysis of revolutions). These arguments provide the basis for criticism of much of the literature which uses domestic structure as an explanation of foreign policy, in particular those which (such as the strong-state weak-state distinction) tend, by excessive focus on forms, to obscure the connection between structures and interests, and the role of politics. These arguments also permit criticism of the notion of a recent fundamental discontinuity in the nature of international relations.

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 407-422
Author(s):  
Birgit Tremml-Werner ◽  
Dorothée Goetze

Abstract This special issue has been motivated by the drive to contextualize the role of individuals of various backgrounds in early modern foreign relations. All contributions cover a broad geographic scope and stress the impact of non-European practices and stages for the study of early modern foreign relations. Four thematic articles follow diverse diplomatic actors, ranging from non-elite envoys to chartered companies, Catholic friars and ministers on ships, to foreign courts, and behind their desks. They provide insights into these individual actors’ functions and achievements and raise questions about social belonging and knowledge channels. The introduction below portrays the development of an actor-oriented research angle in the field of New Diplomatic History over the past decades and addresses blurring concepts and over-generalizations. It attempts to redefine the heterogeneous group of early modern diplomatic actors as products of their involvement in political and material struggles, both at home and abroad.


2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 765-773
Author(s):  
R. S. ALEXANDER

Study of French political history for the period of 1789 to 1851 is exceedingly complex. Not only must one possess knowledge of a succession of regimes (with their varying constitutions, institutions, laws, and conventions), one must also grasp the essentials of political traditions such as royalism, republicanism, and liberalism, all of which altered over time, and familiarize oneself with a plethora of groups or sub groups, such as Montagnards and Girondins, authoritarian and Revolutionary Bonapartists, moderate and ultra royalists, that often adjusted their beliefs and positions according to circumstance. Matters become further complicated when one takes foreign relations into account, assessing the impact of France abroad or the role of foreign relations in shaping French domestic politics.


Author(s):  
Arie M. Kacowicz ◽  
Galia Press-Barnathan

The Middle East is often considered a war zone, and it rarely comes to mind as a region that includes cases of peaceful change. Yet several examples of peaceful change can be identified at different levels of analysis: international, regional, interactive, and domestic. This chapter first critically examines the impact of the broader global/systemic level of analysis on the prospects for peaceful change. It then moves to examine the regional level of analysis, exploring the Kurdish question and the Arab-Israeli conflict as a central axis of change, the role of the Arab League, and the case of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The chapter then examines the interactive, bilateral level of analysis, exploring peaceful territorial change in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, with reference to the successful Israeli-Egyptian negotiations of 1977–1979 and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process since 1993. Next, it explores the domestic level of analysis, focusing on domestic politics, the nature of ruling coalitions, and the implications of the domestic turmoil of the Arab Spring. The last section draws conclusions from each level of analysis, with implications about the prospects for peaceful change in the region.


Author(s):  
A. A. Salcutan

The article analyzes damage caused by attacking finance organizations in the Russian Federation through activization of hacker groups. The mentioned attacks were mainly directed at banking cards’ processing, cash machines and the SWIFT system, an international system of transmitting finance information and payments. The growth in hacker penetrations can be seen in all sectors of Russian economy, it is based on informational confrontation and aims at destabilization of considerable objects of critical information infrastructure. Today special attention is paid to attacks of hacker groups, which get financing from states and criminal groupings in order to exert influence on the leading banks of the world. The author investigated the key methods of attacks of finance organizations. The role of the Federal service on technical and export control and the Department of information security of the Bank of Russia was described. By assessing the impact of computer attacks the author came to the conclusion that the Russian banking sector is vulnerable to computer attacks on informational systems that could cause damage not only to small but also big credit organizations, which possess over 60% of the Russian banking sector assets.  


2020 ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Svetlana Cebotari ◽  
Selena Stejaru

Currently, we experience a conditional reality imposed by the COVID19 pandemic, with both immediate and long-lasting repercussions on the international system and the behavior of each state. For this reason and because the new virus has a dynamic evolution in time and space, research of the impact of the new virus is needed not only from a biogenetic perspective but also in the context of other fields, including the international relations realm. The events we are witnessing at the present challenge to keep up with transformations taking place in the international arena, especially those in the field of virology. As epidemics over time, viruses that cause them to change and occur constantly remain only the fact that they will always influence not only interpersonal relations but impose conditions for new realities in the system of international relations. This article aims to highlight the main gaps in the work of the institution responsible for maintaining peace and security in the international arena, especially in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.


Author(s):  
Jason E. Strakes ◽  
Mikhail A. Molchanov ◽  
David J. Galbreath

To gain a comprehensive understanding of the relationships of elite/citizen preferences and strategies—and its consequent impact on the perceived role of their countries in the greater international system—it is necessary to put an emphasis on interactions within and across contrasting areas of the formerly communist world. Until recently, the systematic investigation of foreign policy-making processes has been a relatively neglected dimension within the general domain of post-communist studies. During the mid-to-late 1990s, various scholars addressed ideological redefinition in post-communist states. Other scholars have addressed the foreign policy trajectory of the newly independent states from the perspective of governance, institutional structure, and state capacity. Among the analytic tools that have been adopted to evaluate the international activities of post-communist states in recent years is the burgeoning concept of “multi-vector” foreign policy. However, due to the vast cross-regional scope and complexity of the former Soviet region, it has become more analytically useful to identify this group of countries in terms of their location in separate and respective geographic subregions. Two regional overviews provide a synthesis of the four analytic foci: national identity, political transition, rationality, and regionalism. The first offers an assessment of the foreign policy decisions and strategies of the Baltic republics since 1990–1. The second evaluates the foreign relations between the Russian Federation and the five independent republics of Central Asia.


Author(s):  
Samuel M. Makinda

In the past few decades, Kenya has benefitted considerably from its improved relations with China. Chinese investments in infrastructure, education, and ICT have opened up greater opportunities for development. Moreover, the availability of diverse and affordable goods has enabled many Kenyans to engage in more commercial activities. This economics-driven diplomacy has been shaped by Kenyan and Chinese political leaders, shifts in the structure of the international system after the Cold War, and the evolving interests of both countries. However, Kenya’s diplomacy is based on a weak knowledge base, as few Kenyan policy makers speak Mandarin and understand China’s diplomatic history. Moreover, China’s investment patterns, which differ from those of Kenya’s traditional Western partners, could negatively impact on Kenya’s commercial domination of eastern Africa. Thus, while Kenya–China relations have promoted some of Kenya’s policy objectives, they also contain the potential to undermine some of Kenya’s other long-range goals.


2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (01) ◽  
pp. 125-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tullo Vigevani ◽  
Haroldo Ramanzini Júnior

Abstract This article aims to analyze the impact of domestic politics and international changes that influence Brazilian positions regarding regional integration processes in South America, particularly the Southern Common Market, Mercosur. The dynamics of the international system and their impact on the evolution of the elite's perception of the role the country should play in the world are important variables for understanding these positions. The state's postures in relation to integration were and are based on a real interest, but this interest is also linked with the objective of ensuring better conditions for participation in other international arenas. Starting with the hypothesis that transformations in the international setting have strongly influenced Brazil's positioning, the elements of continuity and change in the country's behavior toward Mercosur are identified, with domestic politics as the main explanation.


Author(s):  
Karine Khojayan

The article analyses possible scenarios of global world order followed by the outbreak of COVID-19. It assesses to what extend the pandemic will impact the process of transformation of the system of international relations and discusses possible scenario of the global politics for post-COVID period. The article suggests that the expected outcome of the pandemic will be bi-polar world order, which will much differ from the system of the International Relations of Cold War period. The impact of COVID-19 on ongoing processes will be tangible. In the meanwhile, bearing in mind emerging neorealistic tendencies, enhancing role of states as pivotal actors of international system and current level of global inter-dependence, the international relations cannot return to the epoch where political realism had dominant position in global affairs. The article concludes that the pandemic will not drastically change the international order, but it will decently accelerate international processes, started years ago.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey Bloodworth

Will Rogers understood the confounding nature of the Democratic Party. In noting that “Democrats never agree on anything, that’s why they’re Democrats,” the Oklahoma humorist highlighted a consistent theme in the party’s more than 200-year history: division. The political party of the underdog and ethnic, racial, and social minorities has always lacked the cultural cohesion that the Federalists, Whigs, and Republicans possessed. As a result, the main currents of Democratic Party foreign policy elude simple categorization. Muddying any efforts at classification are the dramatically disparate eras in which Democrats conducted foreign policy over two centuries. Like other major American political parties, the Democrats’ foreign policy was animated by a messianic theme balanced against the national and constituent interests. Thinking themselves a “chosen people,” the Revolutionary generation thought their experiment foreshadowed a new global order with universal appeal. As representatives of God’s new Israel, the Founders made their new nation’s messianic relationship to the international system essential to its identity. Shunning established foreign policy practices, they founded a style of American diplomacy that combined idealism with pragmatism. Democrats, along with most every other major political party, have followed the Founders’ example but in a manner particular to the party’s history, constituents, and circumstance. The foreign policy connective tissue of the Democratic Party has been its particular expression of the Founders’ messianic mission interpreted through its ever-evolving cast of disparate constituent groups. In pursuit of this, 19th-century Democratic foreign policy favored territorial and commercial expansion to safeguard their republican experiment. In the 20th and 21st century Democrats globalized these sentiments and sought a world conducive to democracy’s survival. But consistency is scarcely the hallmark of Democratic foreign policy. Driven by its disparate constituent groups and domestic politics, the party has bandied diverse foreign policy strategies through an array of historical circumstances. The sum total of Democratic foreign policy is, at times, a contradictory amalgam of diverse constituencies responding to the issues of the moment in a combination of self-interest and democratic idealism.


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