scholarly journals THE JACOB ZUMA GOVERNMENT’S FOREIGN POLICY: ASSOCIATION OR DISSOCIATION?

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Landsberg
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
South African ◽  
National Interest ◽  
The Government ◽  
International Strategies

In an attempt to bring coherence and predictability to South African foreign policy, the government of Jacob Zuma has, since assuming office in May 2009, put emphasis on forging relations with countries and regions, and key international relations issues and concerns. According to policy, the pursuit of the national interest lay at the heart of the Republic’s international strategies, with ‘national interest’ being used as a cement to hold together the edifice of post-Mbeki government’s foreign policy. On paper, the government appears to have gone far in articulating this ambitious foreign policy, however a number of questions arise. Have these policies been put into practice and if so do they follow the stated agenda or are there serious deviations? Has there been association with Mbeki’s policies on paper and dissociation from such policies in practice? How do the various tenets of foreign policy relate to the epicentre of the national interest and to one another? Do they represent a marked shift from the previous Mbeki government’s African Agenda’ or are they a mere copy? This paper seeks to answer these questions, in particular investigating whether a gap has developed between articulated, or stated, policy and how it was pursued in practice, through implementation.

The “National Interest” and Contemporary World Politics

1978 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Martin Rochester
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Interest ◽  
World Politics ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Past ◽  
Precise Analysis ◽  
The Government

The “national interest” has proven to be a highly resilient concept, not only in terms of its malleability in the hands of foreign policymakers and various publics but also in terms of its ability to retain currency among several generations of international relations scholars despite repeated efforts to discredit it. There have been several attempts recently to rehabilitate the concept, including one by the Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy which recognized that repudiation of the term by academics did not absolve practitioners from their continuing responsibility to define it. However, the problem with recent attempts on the part of scholars as well as practitioners to reformulate the “national interest” is that they fail to take into account adequately the new realities of world politics which have tended to upset the normal calculus. If the identification of “national interests” has defied precise analysis in the past, it is an even more difficult task today.

Political Asylum in Germany: International Norms and Domestic Politics

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-49
Author(s):  
John Bendix ◽  
Niklaus Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Expected Utility ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Political Asylum ◽  
German Politics

Although political asylum has been at the forefront of contemporaryGerman politics for over two decades, it has not been much discussedin political science. Studying asylum is important, however,because it challenges assertions in both comparative politics andinternational relations that national interest drives decision-making.Political parties use national interest arguments to justify claims thatonly their agenda is best for the country, and governments arguesimilarly when questions about corporatist bargaining practices arise.More theoretically, realists in international relations have positedthat because some values “are preferable to others … it is possible todiscover, cumulate, and objectify a single national interest.” Whileinitially associated with Hans Morgenthau’s equating of nationalinterest to power, particularly in foreign policy, this position hassince been extended to argue that states can be seen as unitary rationalactors who carefully calculate the costs of alternative courses ofaction in their efforts to maximize expected utility.

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.

LANGUAGE MEANS OF CREATING POLICIAN’S IMAGE (ON GERMANY MEDIA MATERIALS)

2021 ◽  
pp. 124-130
Author(s):  
О.В. Мифтахова ◽  
К.Г. Мокрова
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Mass Consciousness ◽  
Subjective Opinion ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Figure

Данная статья освещает специфику языковых средств, используемых в немецких СМИ для создания образа политического деятеля. Поскольку средства массовой информации обладают мощнейшим манипулятивным действием, они играют ведущую роль в формировании массового сознания и социального мнения. В СМИ специально создаются политические образы не только отдельных представителей власти, но и государств в целом. Политический имидж лидеров стран влияет на развитие международных отношений: от положительной или негативной окраски того или иного государственного деятеля напрямую зависит успешность проведения внешней политики страны. Цель статьи - рассмотреть на примере двух немецких политиков, Сары Вагенкнехт и Аннегрет Крамп-Карренбауэр, языковые средства создания имиджа, формирующие у аудитории данных деятелей субъективное мнение о них. СМИ выступает мощнейшим оружием в данном вопросе, придавая особую значимость тем или иным высказываниям политиков. Выражая собственную оценку, средства массовой информации незаметно влияют на сознание и суждения людей. Предмет исследования - средства выразительности, которые оказывают воздействие на создание положительных или негативных медиаобразов политиков Германии. Актуальность темы проявляется в необходимости правильно трактовать тонкости речи и письма, которые могут формировать оценочные мнения о том или ином политическом деятеле. This article considers the issues of language means of creating the image of a politician used in the German media. Since the media have a powerful manipulative effect, they play a leading role in creating mass consciousness and social opinion. In the media, political images are specially formed not only of individual representatives of the government, but also of the state as a whole. The political image of the leaders of states have the influence the development of international relations: the success of the country's foreign policy directly depends on the positive or negative coloring of a statesman. The purpose of the article is to examine, using the example of two German politicians, Sarah Wagenknecht and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, as language means for creating an image, forming a subjective opinion of them among the audience. The media act as a powerful weapon in this matter, attaching particular importance to certain statements of politicians. Expressing their own assessment, the media imperceptibly affect the consciousness and judgments of people. The subject of the research is the means of expression that influence the creation of positive or negative media images of German politicians. The relevance of the topic is manifested in the need to understand the intricacies of speech and writing, which can form evaluative opinions about a concrete political figure.

The origins of Canada’s feminist foreign policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Chapnick
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Foreign Minister ◽  
International Community ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
Canadian Foreign Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Minor

In January 2019, a leading Canadian foreign policy blog, OpenCanada.org, declared that “[u]nder the government of Justin Trudeau, Canada has embraced a feminist foreign policy—gradually at first, and with fervor over the past year.” Although critics have debated the policy’s effectiveness, the embrace, if not also the fervor, was indisputable. By 2019, the Trudeau government’s second foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, was proclaiming Canada’s feminist approach to international relations openly and regularly. The international community had also noticed. This article investigates the origins of the new Canadian foreign policy “brand.” It finds that, contrary to popular thinking, the prime minister himself played at most a minor role in the initiation of what became a full-fledged transformation of Canada’s global image.

scholarly journals Mass Media and International Relations

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Elias Papadopoulus
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Black Box ◽  
The State ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
State Actor

In the modern theories in the science of International Relations, the traditional pillar of the school of Realism that considered the state as the only actor in the international scene, actor who took every decision in a monolithic and rational way, taking into consideration only the national interest, has now been rejected. The metaphor of the "black box", indicative of this monolithic way of operation and the rejection of every non-state, but also intra-state and out-of-state actor, even if it was valid once, has definitely been weakened by the events of the post-cold war era, and especially with the advent of globalization. New parameters have been inserted in the process of foreign policy formulation and politicians (and all those responsible for a country‘s foreign policy) have to take them into consideration.

Public choice and foreign affairs: Democracy and international relations in Turkey

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 57-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ersin Kalaycıoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Eu

AbstractIn a democracy it is through the process of voting that people find an opportunity to register their likes and dislikes of domestic and foreign policy decisions most effectively. In Turkey, the recent national elections on 22 July 2007 provided an opportunity to observe the nexus between voters’ choices and foreign policy issues. Questions pertaining to problems facing the country and the campaign issues fail to give any clue as to whether people paid attention to foreign policy in making their choices among the political parties of the country. However, a closer examination of the factors determining the vote indicates that, although party identification and satisfaction with the performance of the economy and the expectations of the government in managing the economy played major roles, attitudes towards the European Union (EU), nationalism, and globalization closely followed in magnitude those two factors in determining the voters’ party preferences across the left-right spectrum. While AKP supporters had the most favorable attitude towards the EU, MHP supporters appeared highly nationalistic, and CHP voters seemed most influenced by positive orientations to openness to the world.

scholarly journals Foreign Policy and Afrocentricism: An Appraisal of Nigeria’s Role

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Muritala Dauda ◽  
Mohammad Zaki Bin Ahmad ◽  
Mohammad Faisol Keling
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Concentric Circle ◽  
Entire Body ◽  
Military Administration ◽  
Secondary Data Source ◽  
The Government ◽  
Higher Institutions

Nigerian foreign policy is a tool use by the country to achieve its national interest. The country’s external policy has been tailored to be Afrocentric since its independence in 1960 which shows the commitment of Nigeria towards Africa’s stability and development. The principles of Nigeria’s foreign policy and its Afrocentricism has consistently operated by the government of the country irrespective of whether it is civilian or military administration. The notion of four concentric circle of Nigerian foreign policy where the country considers its national interest and the interest of its neighbouring States first, the West African sub-region, Africa’s interest and the interest of the world, have accrued numerous benefits to the country. The benefit of Nigeria’s Afrocentric policy has enormously assisted the country’s image internationally. This has invariably promoted Nigeria’s influence during global decision making. The study makes use of systems theory that viewed an individual or group as an ecosystem with moving parts that affect each other. Meaning that, if any part of human body is suffering from pain or any deficiency, the entire body will be feeling pain which can make the whole human body to malfunction. Likewise Nigeria, if any African country is in a crisis, all countries in Africa should look for a way-out to rescue the situation. The study therefore is qualitative in nature that employs the use of both primary and secondary data source. Twelve respondents were interviewed from various higher institutions and government agencies, and the data was analyzed thematically through Nvivo 10.

scholarly journals Cultural Diplomacy in Canadian Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Tatiana Shchukina
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Canadian Foreign Policy ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Unique Potential ◽  
State Regional

In furthering its foreign policy, Canada, as other countries, uses its reputation, advantage and assets to enhance its national interest, and to strengthen its state-to-state, regional and international relations. Comprising a range of instruments, a country's culture and arts stand out as having the unique potential to enrich its foreign policy. Culture and arts have long played a role in Canada's international relations. Government of Canada should develop and implement a comprehensive cultural diplomacy strategy that establish its objectives within the context of Canada's foreign policy, articulate roles and responsibilities, and identify the budgetary resources necessary for the strategy's realization.

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