scholarly journals Toward a differentiation-based framework for middle power behavior

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Sarah Teo
Keyword(s):  
International Politics ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Functional Differentiation ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Underlying Assumption ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
New Framework

Abstract Differentiation is a foundational premise in the study of middle powers, as evident in the way that the relevant literature distinguishes these states from the great powers and smaller states. Despite the underlying assumption of differentiation, the middle power literature has rarely engaged theoretically with the concept. This paper seeks to make more explicit this basis of differentiation in the study of middle powers, by advancing a new framework for middle power behavior that draws on differentiation theory. The framework makes the case that it is the differentiated structure in international politics – a departure from the dominant neorealist understanding of structure – that enables the behavior of middle powers. The effects of this differentiated structure are activated by the relative, relational, and social power politics that middle powers engage in, in a particular time and place. Through this process, middle powers are able to leverage their ‘middlepowerness’ in international politics by weakening stratification particularly where the great powers are concerned, and strengthening functional differentiation through taking on key and distinctive roles. By putting differentiation at the core of a framework for middle power behavior, the paper strives to make a constructive contribution to the theorizing of middle powers.

Middle Power Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific: India and Australia at the Forefront

2021 ◽  
pp. 002088172110567
Author(s):  
Shubhamitra Das
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
Conflict And Cooperation ◽  
Western Model ◽  
Middle Powers

Indo-Pacific has emerged as a region of great movement, conflict and cooperation, contestations and coalition-building. The emergence of minilateral and multilateral cooperation by the middle powers is increasing in the region, with the regional countries enthusiastically mapping the region focussing on their centrality. History proves that the role of middle-power countries became more prominent during the moments of international transition. The two contrasting powers like India and Australia; one with a post-colonial identity in foreign policy-making, subtle emphasis on non-aligned movement (NAM) and emerging as an influential power, and, on the other, a traditional middle power with an alliance structure and regionalism akin to the Western model, have equal stakes in the region and it is inevitable for them to take a leadership position in building what is called a middle power communion in the Indo-Pacific. This article will explore the understanding of middle powers and how India and Australia, as middle powers; are strategically placed and, being great powers within their respective regions; take the responsibility of region-building and maintaining peace with great powers, and how the Indo-Pacific and Quad are emerging as discourses within their foreign policy-making.

Regional Middle Powers and the Indo-Pacific Strategic Narrative

2019 ◽  
pp. 110-142
Author(s):  
Timothy Doyle ◽  
Dennis Rumley
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Economic Competition ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
The Us ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
Policy Interest

In this chapter we argue that, in the Indo-Pacific region since the ‘end’ of the ‘old’ Cold War, there has been a process of political and economic competition among regional great powers for influence over Indo-Pacific core middle powers. One of the essential aims of this process is to create a regional middle power coalition in opposition to either China or the US, one of the elements of the new Cold War. As a result, the foreign policies of US-co-opted states will exhibit a shift in emphasis towards support for the US pivot and an expression of a greater foreign policy interest than heretofore in the Indo-Pacific region, following the US. The result is that an Indo-Pacific self-identification and an ‘Indo-Pacific narrative’ become important components of the foreign policy rhetoric and debate of US-co-opted states.

scholarly journals Illiberalism, geopolitics, and middle power security: Lessons from the Norwegian case

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-102
Author(s):  
Nina Græger
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Bilateral Cooperation ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
Global Solidarity

Middle powers have played a key role in supporting global governance, a rules-based order, and human rights norms. Apart from conveying and effectuating global solidarity and responsibility, multilateral cooperation has been an arena where middle powers seek protection and leverage relatively modest power to greater effect, sometimes as “helpful fixers” to great powers. This article argues that geopolitical revival and the contestation of the liberal order are challenging middle powers' traditional sheltering policies, based on empirical evidence from the Norwegian case. First, the weakening of multilateral organizations is making middle powers more vulnerable to great power rivalry and geopolitics, and Norway's relationship with Russia is particularly pointed. Second, existing shelters such as NATO and bilateral cooperation with the US are negatively affected by the latter's anti-liberal foreign policies, making looser sheltering frameworks important supplements. While Norway's and other middle powers' traditional policies within the “soft power” belt may continue, “doing good” may become less prioritized, due to the need for security.

Proof of Greatness or Evidence of Modesty? A Comparative Analysis of China’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-162
Author(s):  
Min Ye ◽  
Quan Li
Keyword(s):  
International System ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
International Status

Abstract Any serious discussion about the consequences of China’s rise must start with a systematic and rigorous assessment of China’s actual influence and status in the international system. In this article, we examine a widely used indicator in the debate about China’s international status. Although many existing studies see China’s active participation in United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Operations as incontestable evidence of China’s great power status, others contend that it signifies the status of only a middle power. We posit that China’s policy behaviour should be evaluated in a comparative manner, and from a dynamic perspective. After comparing the patterns and features of China’s personnel contributions with that of 20 other major countries in the world, we find that China’s behaviour is more similar to that of developing ‘middle powers’, such as Turkey, India, and Brazil, as opposed to established ‘great powers’ such as other permanent members of the UN Security Council or traditional ‘western middle powers’.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Dilemmas of Middle Powers

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (02) ◽  
pp. 2040008 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRIAN L. JOB
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
The Us ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
Security Guarantees ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Hard Place

“Middle powers,” variously defined, have served relevant and significant roles in the post-WWII regional and global orders, facilitated by structural conditions of “long peace” among great powers and proactive leadership by and among creative middle powers. Within the complex Asia-Pacific security order, “middle powers” such as Australia, Canada, and South Korea have had the “space” to engage the non-like minded and advance multilateralism with security guarantees from the US. However, Beijing and Washington today are eliminating this space and its associated choices for middle-power diplomacy by increasingly characterizing their rivalry as a confrontation of “existential threats” between incompatible “civilizations” and securitizing trade and technology. China and the US are each selectively ignoring or purposely eroding key aspects of a rules-based international order. This paper highlights the dilemmas of South Korea, Australia, and Canada, middle powers who have found themselves individually and collectively “stuck” facing contradictory global and regional policy choices.

Middle Powers and the Rise of China: ‘Identity Norms’ of Dependency and Activism and the Outlook for Japan–South Korea Relations vis-à-vis the Great Powers

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEY-YOUNG SON
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
Relative Decline ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
The Rise Of China

AbstractHow do state identities and their accompanying norms affect security behaviour especially when states consider forming alliances or alignments? Are middle powers different from great powers in their security norms and preferences? This article identifies dependency and activism as two ‘identity norms’ that constitute and reproduce medium-sized states as bona fide middle powers. This article argues that, due to the identity norms of a middle power, Japan and South Korea are reluctant to form a bilateral alliance between themselves and their efforts to socialize with China do not necessarily contradict their security relationships with the United States. The first section focuses on the norm of dependency to illustrate whether Japan and South Korea sought to strengthen bilateral alignment in the event of major security crises, provoked by China and North Korea. It argues that a middle power is not disposed to strengthen alignment with another middle power in the event of a national security crisis because of its entrenched norm of dependency on a great power. The second section elaborates the norm of middle power activism. Both Japan and South Korea have engaged in diplomatic efforts to enmesh China in a number of multilateral security mechanisms in order to hedge against the relative decline of US influences in East Asia.

Canada and the Crisis of Middle Powers

Worldview ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 23-27
Author(s):  
John W. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Middle Powers

If the superpowers are, as is commonly suggested, passing through a time of crisis, so inevitably are the “middle powers,” for the states that for twenty-five years have been collectively but erratically referred to as middle powers are groping for their place in a system determined by the giants. At San Francisco in 1945 the middle powers seemed to have found a mission in frustrating the great power determination to brook as little interference as possible in their ordering of world politics. When the great powers fell apart, the middle-power front was also broken. Its members found their niches in alliance with the great powers or in a status they called nonalignment. Alignment and nonalignment make sense, however, only in relation to the great powers' division.

The Middle Powers in the United Nations System

1947 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Det. Glazebrook
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Arbitrary Boundary ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
Small Powers

The term “middle power” is a convenient one that has come into general use as a means of avoiding the unreality of a simple division of states into “great” and “small”. While attempts to find a yardstick for the measurement of states have been fruitless, there can be some agreement on the categories. For practical purposes the great powers at the present time are those which hold permanent seats on the Security Council, just as during the war they were those which participated in the meetings of heads of government on high policial and military policy. There are clearly also a number of smaller states which, because of limited resources or small population, or both, are commonly ranked as small powers. In between lie a number of countries which make no claim to the title of great power, but have been shown to be capable of exerting a degree of strength and influence not found in the small powers. These are the middle powers. There is no agreed list because, while there is a fixed, if arbitrary, boundary between them and the great powers, there are, as it were, marginal powers which might be classified as “middle” or “small”. Probably, however, the following members of the United Nations would generally be recognized as middle powers: in Europe — Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland; in the Americas — Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico; in the Pacific — Australia, and India.

The Impact of International Politics on Commercial Flows in the Age of Globalization

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Costalli
Keyword(s):  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Simultaneous Action ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Reciprocal Relationships ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Impact

The debate between realists and liberals in the field of International Relations concerning the causes and effects of economic interdependence among states has led to a remarkable branch of empirical literature. However, hardly any research has studied those dynamics in the period following the Cold War, which is so often defined “the age of globalization.” This article is based on a quantitative analysis of the influence of international politics on commercial flows in the post-bipolar period and it performs such analysis on two sets of data. The first one includes all countries of the system for which data is available and the second one focuses on the countries that previous similar studies have identified as great powers. The results show that the contemporary international system is marked by a high degree of complexity and by the simultaneous action of different and even contrasting logics. Liberal variables such as democracy and economic international institutions exert a remarkable influence on international trade, especially at the global level, but international security and even power politics issues are still relevant, particularly for the great powers in their reciprocal relationships.

Time and Moral Reasoning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piki Ish-Shalom
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Normative Language

This chapter explores the nexus of moral reasoning, politics, and time, especially in the realm of international politics. It argues that a crucial venue through which adversarial politics infiltrates moral reasoning is the latter’s need of temporalization. Temporalization is facilitated by temporal contexts and narratives so that the temporal boundaries of the situations-to-be-judged become essentially contested. The essential contestedness of temporal boundaries can subjugate normative language and moral reasoning to the dictates of adversarial politics and relativism. Temporalization can change morality into an instrument of power politics. To overcome these problems and salvage morality from subjugation and relativism, the chapter suggests that we should focus on international institutions, which can salvage moral reasoning by changing the structure of incentives facing adversaries, encouraging them not to aim predominantly at their own, domestic audience, but equally at international and universal audiences.

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