Path Dependency in Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anika C. Leithner ◽  
Kyle M. Libby
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Path Dependent

Path dependence has been employed more frequently in the field of foreign policy analysis, though it is still an emerging framework. The roots of path dependence are traced from the physical sciences and economics to the social sciences, and finally, foreign policy. The basic assumptions of path dependence are summarized, including the role of critical junctures, increased returns, and policy legacies that are produced and reproduced by a variety of causal mechanisms. The preferred methods employed by path dependence scholars are briefly outlined; framework’s applicability to the study of politics is addressed, and the major critiques of path dependence are reviewed. This leads to the general conclusion that despite conceptual and methodological challenges in the area of foreign policy, there is definite “value added” in path-dependent approaches.

Emotions and Foreign Policy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Collective Emotions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
And Behavior

Increasingly, scholars are recognizing the influences of emotion on foreign policy decision-making processes. Not merely feelings, emotions are sets of sentimental, physiological, and cognitive processes that typically arise in response to situational stimuli. They play a central role in psychological and social processes that shape foreign policy decision-making and behavior. In recent years, three important areas of research on emotion in foreign policy have developed: one examining the effects of emotion on how foreign policy decision makers understand and think-through problems, another focused on the role of emotion in diplomacy, and a third that investigates how mass emotion develops and shapes the context in which foreign policy decisions are made. These literatures have benefitted greatly from developments in the study of emotion by psychologists, neuroscientists, and others. Effectively using emotion to study foreign policy, however, requires some understanding of how these scholars approach the study of emotion and other affective phenomena. In addition to surveying the literatures in foreign policy analysis that use emotion, then, this article also addresses definitional issues and the different theories of emotion common among psychologists and neuroscientists. Some of the challenges scholars of emotion in foreign policy face: the interplay of the psychological and the social in modelling collective emotions, the issues involved in observing emotions in the foreign policy context, the theoretical challenge of emotion regulation, and the challenge of winning broader acceptance of the importance of emotion in foreign policy by the broader scholarly community.

Path Dependence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Hegmon
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
General Level ◽  
Historical Contingency ◽  
Difficult Decision ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Historical Sequences ◽  
Lock In

Path dependence concepts, thus far, have seen little application in archaeology, but they have great potential. At a general level, these concepts provide tools for theorizing historical sequences, such as patterns of settlement on a landscape and divergent historical traditions. Potential applications include issues of historical contingency in the late Rio Grande, settlement in the Mesa Verde region, and divergent trajectories in the post-Chaco period. Specific concepts from path dependence theory, including lock-in and critical junctures, are illustrated by an analysis of the growth of Hohokam irrigation, which exhibited a path-dependent trajectory. As archaeological study of path dependence builds awareness of the importance of decision-making on the future, it contributes to difficult decision-making in today’s world.

11. Identities and US foreign policy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Rowley ◽  
Jutta Weldes
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
State Identity ◽  
Social Construction Of Reality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Constructivist Approach ◽  
Critical Social

This chapter examines the role of identity in constructing U.S. foreign policy. Using a critical social constructivist approach, it argues that particular conceptions of U.S. identity constitute U.S. interests, thus providing the foundations for foreign policy. After providing an overview of the influence of interests on foreign policy, the chapter considers the basic assumptions of critical social constructivism, taking into account the social construction of reality and the concepts of discourse and articulation. It then analyses discourses as sites of power, identity, and representation, along with the importance of identity in U.S. foreign policy. It also looks at U.S. presidents’ articulations of state identity and foreign policy over the last six decades.

scholarly journals The role of path dependence in the development of US bankruptcy law, 1880–1938

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRADLEY A. HANSEN ◽  
MARY ESCHELBACH HANSEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bankruptcy Law ◽  
Dependent Process ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Path Dependent Process ◽  
Political Compromises

Abstract:We illustrate mechanisms that can give rise to path dependence in legislation. Specifically, we show how debtor-friendly bankruptcy law arose in the United States as a result of a path dependent process. The 1898 Bankruptcy Act was not regarded as debtor-friendly at the time of its enactment, but the enactment of the law gave rise to changes in interest groups, changes in beliefs about the purpose of bankruptcy law, and changes in the Democratic Party's position on bankruptcy that set the United States on a path to debtor-friendly bankruptcy law. An analysis of the path dependence of bankruptcy law produces an interpretation that is more consistent with the evidence than the conventional interpretation that debtor-friendliness in bankruptcy law began with political compromises to obtain the 1898 Bankruptcy Act.

The Role of Interests in Science

1984 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
W. Newton-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Practical Interest ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Scientific Enterprise ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
In Virtue Of

A series of lectures organized in part by the Society for Applied Philosophy and entitled ‘Philosophy and Practice’ is presumably aimed at displaying the practical implications of philosophical doctrines and/or applying philosophical skills to practical questions. The topic of this paper, the role of interests in science, certainly meets the first condition. For as will be argued there are a number of theses concerning the role of interests in science which have considerable implications for how one should see the scientific enterprise in general and in particular for how one assesses the claim that science ought to be accorded its priviliged position in virtue of its results and/or methods And in view of the respect and resources accorded to science what could be of greater practical interest? It remains the case, however, that my interest may seem the inverse of that of the organizers of this series. For in looking at the role of interest in science, one is examining, so to speak, the extent to which the sphere of the practical determines what goes on in science. One is exploring ways in which the non-scientific impinges on the scientific. While my primary focus will be on the physical sciences, it will be argued that there is a significant difference between them and the social sciences; a difference which renders the social sciences intrinsically liable to penetration from outside. As will be seen, some of the particular arguments for this conclusion make pressing the question: what about philosophy? The answer, it will be concluded, is that philosophy is insulated from external influences to a considerable extent. In that lies both its importance and an explanation as to why much of it has little practical application.

Foreign Policy and the Social Construction of State Identity

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Kowert
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
State Level ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
The State ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
State Identity ◽  
Psychological Theories ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Foreign policy analysis benefits from careful attention to state identity. After all, identity defines the field itself by making it possible to speak both of policies and of a domain that is foreign. For some scholars, identity has proven useful as a guide to agency and, in particular, to agent preferences. For others, identity has served as a guide to social or institutional structure. Theories of state identity can be divided into three categories: conditions internal to agents, social interactions among agents, and “ecological” encounters with a broader environment. Internal conditions refer to either processes or constraints that operate within the agent under consideration. In the case of the state, these may include domestic politics, the individual characteristics of citizens or other internal actors, and the collective attributes of these citizens or other actors. Although internal causes are not social at the state level, they nevertheless have social implications if they give rise to state identity, and they may themselves be social at a lower level. The social interactions of states themselves constitute a second source of identity, one that treats states as capable of interacting like persons. This approach essentially writes large social and psychological theories, replacing individuals with the state. Finally, the ecological setting or broader environment is a third possible source of identity. The environment may be material, ideational, or discursive, and treated as an objective or a subjective influence.

The Role of Interests in Science

1984 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
W. Newton-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Practical Interest ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Scientific Enterprise ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
In Virtue Of

A series of lectures organized in part by the Society for Applied Philosophy and entitled ‘Philosophy and Practice’ is presumably aimed at displaying the practical implications of philosophical doctrines and/or applying philosophical skills to practical questions. The topic of this paper, the role of interests in science, certainly meets the first condition. For as will be argued there are a number of theses concerning the role of interests in science which have considerable implications for how one should see the scientific enterprise in general and in particular for how one assesses the claim that science ought to be accorded its priviliged position in virtue of its results and/or methods And in view of the respect and resources accorded to science what could be of greater practical interest? It remains the case, however, that my interest may seem the inverse of that of the organizers of this series. For in looking at the role of interest in science, one is examining, so to speak, the extent to which the sphere of the practical determines what goes on in science. One is exploring ways in which the non-scientific impinges on the scientific. While my primary focus will be on the physical sciences, it will be argued that there is a significant difference between them and the social sciences; a difference which renders the social sciences intrinsically liable to penetration from outside. As will be seen, some of the particular arguments for this conclusion make pressing the question: what about philosophy? The answer, it will be concluded, is that philosophy is insulated from external influences to a considerable extent. In that lies both its importance and an explanation as to why much of it has little practical application.

Synthesis and reformulation of foreign policy change: Japan and East Asian financial regionalism

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 785-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
YONG WOOK LEE
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Power Strategies ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
Foreign Policy Change ◽  
International Systems

AbstractWhat explains major foreign policy changes? Why and when does the state change its foreign policy? Despite the importance of foreign policy change, which can (re)shape the nature of a given state's international relationsvis-à-visother states and international systems, explanations of foreign policy change have received only sporadic attention in foreign policy analysis literature. Against this backdrop, I offer in this article a new framework designed to capturebothmotivational and processual aspects of foreign policy change. I develop the framework by critically examining and synthesising two recent systematic explorations of foreign policy change: one framework within the tradition of rationalism (broadly defined) – David Welch'sPainful Choice: A Theory of Foreign Policy Change(2005) – and the other within constructivism – Jeffrey Legro'sRethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order(2006). For the motivational analysis, I link the role of crisis-defining ideas tothreat perceptionto sharpen prospect theory. I illustrate this reformulated synthesis with an example of Japan's policy shift toward East Asian financial regionalism.

scholarly journals Ideology and Urbanism in a Flux

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-140
Author(s):  
Elitza Stanoeva
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Party Ideology ◽  
Art Canon

The socialist reconstruction of Sofia evolved at the juncture of institution-building, formation of professional expertise and social engineering, framed by a party ideology in a flux that time and again revised the social mission of urbanism and the professional role of the architect. This paper first focuses on four areas of Sofia’s reconstruction that illustrate the interplay of ideology and urbanism in the Stalinist years: the endorsement and subsequent betrayal of Marxist guidelines for urban planning; the replication of the leader cult and its prime monument, the Mausoleum; the reorganization of architects into a Soviet-style professional union; the application of the Stalinist art canon in monumental architecture. The paper then discusses how de-Stalinization affected urban planning, public architecture and architects’ professional standing. It concludes by reflecting on the post-1989 transformation of Sofia as a radical breach with socialism or a symptom of path dependence.

Ethnic and confessional factor in the Arab countries of the Eastern Mediterranean

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-48
Author(s):  
Elena Mikhaylovna Savicheva ◽  
Nigina Sukhbatovna Akhmedova ◽  
Somar Hafez Ghanem
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Societies

The article analyzes the role of ethno-confessional factor in the social and political life of two Eastern Mediterranean Arab countries - Lebanon and Syria. It is emphasized that ethnic and confessional diversity in combination with cultural and civilizational specifics predetermines the peculiarities of political processes in the countries and their foreign policy orientations. The authors note the tendency of wide involvement of various ethnic and confessional groups in political processes. The authors come to the conclusion about significance of ethnic and confessional factors in the development of traditional societies in the Middle Eastern countries, including Syria and Lebanon. The ethno-confessional factor can both consolidate and mobilize society, as well as increase the potential for conflict and complicate the settlement process in multi-ethnic and multi-confessional countries of the region.

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