See No Evil, Speak No Evil? Morality, Evolutionary Psychology, and the Nature of International Relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Brian C. Rathbun ◽  
Caleb Pomeroy
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Rare Word ◽  
The Public ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
International Threat ◽  
Empirical Implications ◽  
Interpersonal Level

Abstract A central theme in the study of international relations is that anarchy requires states to set aside moral concerns to attain security, rendering IR an autonomous sphere devoid of ethical considerations. Evolutionary and moral psychology, however, suggest that morality emerged to promote human success under such conditions. It is not despite anarchy but because of anarchy that humans have an ethical sense. Our argument has three empirical implications. First, it is almost impossible to talk about threat and harm without invoking morality. Second, state leaders and the public will use moral judgments as a basis, indeed the most important factor, for assessing international threat, just as research shows they do at the interpersonal level. Third, foreign policy driven by a conception of international relations as an amoral sphere will be quite rare. Word embeddings applied to large political and nonpolitical corpora, a survey experiment in Russia, and an in-depth analysis of Hitler's foreign policy thought suggest that individuals both condemn aggressive behavior by others and screen for threats on the basis of morality. The findings erode notions of IR as an autonomous sphere and upset traditional materialist–ideational dichotomies.

Mahathirism and Its Legacy in Malaysia’s Foreign Policy

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörn Dosch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Asian Regionalism ◽  
Policy Style ◽  
Global Affairs

The foreign policy style of Malaysia’s fourth prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad (1981–2003), was controversial in many instances, but the country’s influence and leverage in regional and global affairs had been remarkable for a country of its size. Despite initial outcries within Malaysia’s neighbourhood, Mahathir’s contributions to a wider East Asian regionalism are a lasting legacy. In the decade that has passed since Mahathir stepped down, Malaysia’s international relations have rarely made the global headlines. Does the legacy of Mahathirism live on in Malaysia’s foreign policy, or does the seeming absence of bold and pro-active initiatives indicate a substantive change of style and direction? The prime ministers since 2003, Abdullah Badawi and Najib Razak, have lacked Mahathir’s hegemonic status in policy-making, and this has inevitably led to a de-personalisation and institutionalisation of foreign affairs. At the same time both administrations have continued Mahathir’s practice of keeping foreign affairs out of the public domain as much as possible, in order to reduce the influence of domestic interests and debates on foreign policy matters.

War and Democratic Constraint

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Baum ◽  
Philip B. K. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Institutions ◽  
The Media ◽  
Better Than

Why do some democracies reflect their citizens' foreign policy preferences better than others? What roles do the media, political parties, and the electoral system play in a democracy's decision to join or avoid a war? This book shows that the key to how a government determines foreign policy rests on the transmission and availability of information. Citizens successfully hold their democratic governments accountable and a distinctive foreign policy emerges when two vital institutions—a diverse and independent political opposition and a robust media—are present to make timely information accessible. The book demonstrates that there must first be a politically potent opposition that can blow the whistle when a leader missteps. This counteracts leaders' incentives to obscure and misrepresent. Second, healthy media institutions must be in place and widely accessible in order to relay information from whistle-blowers to the public. The book explores this communication mechanism during three different phases of international conflicts: when states initiate wars, when they respond to challenges from other states, or when they join preexisting groups of actors engaged in conflicts. Examining recent wars, including those in Afghanistan and Iraq, the book links domestic politics and mass media to international relations in a brand-new way.

scholarly journals Choice or Circumstance? Adjusting Measures of Foreign Policy Similarity for Chance Agreement

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank M. Häge
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Similarity Score ◽  
Face Validity ◽  
Dyadic Analysis ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Empirical Distributions ◽  
Different Types

The similarity of states' foreign policy positions is a standard variable in the dyadic analysis of international relations. Recent studies routinely rely on Signorino and Ritter's (1999, Tau-b or not tau-b: Measuring the similarity of foreign policy positions.International Studies Quarterly43:115–44)Sto assess the similarity of foreign policy ties. However,Sneglects two fundamental characteristics of the international state system: foreign policy ties are relatively rare and individual states differ in their innate propensity to form such ties. I propose two chance-corrected agreement indices, Scott's (1955, Reliability of content analysis: The case of nominal scale coding.The Public Opinion Quarterly19:321–5) π and Cohen's (1960, A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales.Educational and Psychological Measurement20:37–46) κ, as viable alternatives. Both indices adjust the dyadic similarity score for a large number of common absent ties. Cohen's κ also takes into account differences in individual dyad members' total number of ties. The resulting similarity scores have stronger face validity thanS. A comparison of their empirical distributions and a replication of Gartzke's (2007, The capitalist peace.American Journal of Political Science51:166–91) study of the ‘Capitalist Peace’ indicate that the different types of measures are not substitutable.

Public Opinion and Decisions About Military Force in Democracies

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tomz ◽  
Jessica L.P. Weeks ◽  
Keren Yarhi-Milo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Religious Policy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Costs ◽  
The Us

AbstractMany theories of international relations assume that public opinion exerts a powerful effect on foreign policy in democracies. Previous research, based on observational data, has reached conflicting conclusions about this foundational assumption. We use experiments to examine two mechanisms—responsiveness and selection—through which opinion could shape decisions about the use of military force. We tested responsiveness by asking members of the Israeli parliament to consider a crisis in which we randomized information about public opinion. Parliamentarians were more willing to use military force when the public was in favor and believed that contravening public opinion would entail heavy political costs. We tested selection by asking citizens in Israel and the US to evaluate parties/candidates, which varied randomly on many dimensions. In both countries, security policy proved as electorally significant as economic and religious policy, and far more consequential than nonpolicy considerations such as gender, race, and experience. Overall, our experiments in two important democracies imply that citizens can affect policy by incentivizing incumbents and shaping who gets elected.

Comparative Foreign Policy Security Interests

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aigul Kulnazarova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
National Security ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
World Order ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
The Public

The subject of comparative foreign policy security interests concerns itself with at least two separate subfields of international relations: foreign policy analysis and security studies. The foreign policy analysis concerns the decision-making processes of states in their daily interaction with other actors of international relations: state and nonstate, international organizations and individuals. Security studies in a broad sense also refer to the behavior of states, but, in particular, only to those measures that states take to ensure their own security and survival in the international arena. It is not surprising that any such measures have traditionally been viewed as national security interests. The term national security became widely used only after World War II to understand and explain the national interests of the leading powers, which the latter mainly used as a priority of their foreign policy. Often, national security was associated with military/physical security, strategic parity, and confrontation of mutual threat, although some authors, such as Wolfers 1952 (cited under Theoretical Overview), argue that the meaning of the term is not so clear and is, in fact, more complicated. Since the 1990s, due to the changing world order and the growing forces of globalization, the sphere of national security has expanded significantly and now includes nonmilitary or nontraditional security sectors: economic, environmental, societal, political, etc. The consequences of globalization are obvious, as they have influenced further changes in the behavioral tendencies of states in external relations. Old approaches to security no longer meet the challenges of the new millennium. Perhaps the emerging academic subfield of comparative foreign policy security interests will deal with aspects of state behavior and policy aimed at achieving, maintaining, or redistributing the positions of states in the transforming global system. It is possible to distinguish two levels of foreign policy security interests: public and private. While the first concerns the security and integrity of state sovereignty and independence, protected by diplomatic, political, economic, ideological, and military means, the second includes the need for states to establish themselves in international organizations by instituting and promoting relations in scientific, technological, cultural, educational, social, environmental, and other fields with various actors, and participating in the settlement of regional and local conflicts. The protection of security interests at the public level is more stable, while the private level is more variable, and the latter can turn into the public one. One way to understand how states develop and implement their foreign policy security interests is to use a comparative approach.

scholarly journals How to make elite experiments work in International Relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612098789
Author(s):  
Simone Dietrich ◽  
Heidi Hardt ◽  
Haley J. Swedlund
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Implementation Guidelines ◽  
Policy Elites

For decades, many International Relations (IR) scholars did not engage in elite experiments, because they viewed it as too risky, too costly, or too difficult to implement. However, as part of a behavioral turn in IR, a growing number of scholars have begun to adopt the method in their own research. This shift raises important questions. Under what conditions do elite experiments add value to IR scholarship? How can scholars overcome the logistical and ethical challenges of sampling such an elusive group? This article makes an original conceptual contribution to methodological debates on the role of behavioral approaches by analyzing experiments on foreign policy elites. We analyze the method’s strengths and weaknesses, evaluate ethical considerations, and present what is—to the best of our knowledge—the most comprehensive set of implementation guidelines. Our article draws on recently published IR research and argues that the payoffs from elite experiments are well worth the effort.

The Road to Iraq

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Iraq War ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Road ◽  
Cohesive Group ◽  
Political Agents

The Road to Iraq is an empirical investigation that explains the causes of the Iraq War, identifies its main agents, and demonstrates how the war was sold to decision makers and by decision makers to the public. It shows how a small but ideologically coherent and socially cohesive group of determined political agents used the contingency of 9/11 to outflank a sceptical foreign policy establishment, military brass and intelligence apparatus and provoked a war that has had disastrous consequences.

Resurrected Bodies

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Organ Transplant ◽  
Transplant Recipients ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
Faith Traditions ◽  
Anthropological Literature ◽  
Religious Actors

The anthropological literature on transplant, though theoretically and ethnographically rich, does not address religion in any substantial way. And while bio-ethical considerations of transplant regularly address religion, treatments are generally circumscribed to a list of various faith traditions and their stance toward organ transplant. Such a presentation reduces “religion” to the world’s recognized faith traditions, “religious actors” to the official spokespersons of these traditions, and “religious belief” to moral injunctions. The objective of the thesis was to illuminate the prominent place of religion in the lived experience of transplant recipients and donors, in the public policy and professional activities of transplant officials, and in the transplant discourses of North America

International Relations at the Beginning of the XX Century in the Works of Vladimir Mikhailovich Khvostov

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 218-221
Author(s):  
Albina Imamutdinova ◽  
Nikita Kuvshinov ◽  
Elena Andreeva ◽  
Elena Venidiktova
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
History Of

Abstract The article discusses the research activities of Vladimir Mikhailovich Khvostov, his creative legacy on issues and problems of international relations of the early ХХ century; the life of V.M. Khvostov, characterization and evolution of his approaches and views on the history of international relations, foreign policy. A prominent organizer and theorist in the field of pedagogical Sciences, academician Vladimir Mikhailovich Khvostov played a significant role in the formation of the Academy of pedagogical Sciences of the USSR – the all-Union center of pedagogical thought. As its first President, he paid great attention to the development and improvement of the system of humanitarian education in the school, taking into account all the tasks and requirements imposed by the practice of Communist construction in our country. In his reports and speeches at various scientific sessions and conferences, he repeatedly emphasized the exceptional importance of social Sciences in the training of not only educated girls and boys, but also in the formation of politically literate youth.

Basic principles of Russian foreign policy under Vladimir Putin

Upravlenie ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 116-122
Author(s):  
Sadeghi Elham Mir Mohammad ◽  
Ahmad Vakhshitekh
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Order ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Russian Foreign Policy ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
The Moment

The article considers and analyses the basic principles and directions of Russian foreign policy activities during the presidency of V.V. Putin from the moment of his assumption of the post of head of state to the current presidential term. The authors determine the basic principles of Russia's foreign policy in the specified period and make the assessment to them. The study uses materials from publications of both Russian and foreign authors, experts in the field of political science, history and international relations, as well as documents regulating the foreign policy activities of the highest state authorities. The paper considers the process of forming the priorities of Russia's foreign policy both from the point of view of accumulated historical experience and continuity of the internal order, and in parallel with the processes of transformation of the entire system of international relations and the world order. The article notes the multi-vector nature of Russia's foreign policy strategy aimed at developing multilateral interstate relations, achieving peace and security in the interstate arena, actively countering modern challenges and threats to interstate security, as well as the formation of a multipolar world. The authors conclude that at present, Russia's foreign policy activity is aimed at strengthening Russia's prestige, supporting economic growth and competitiveness, ensuring security and implementing national interests. Internal political reforms contribute to strengthening the political power of the President of the Russian Federation and increasing the efficiency of foreign policy decision-making.

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