Geography and Foreign Policy, II

1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Spykman

In the first part of this article, we analyzed the effect of size and world location on the international relations of states and the problems of foreign policy. But more immediate in its conditioning effect is regional location—location viewed with reference to the immediate vicinity.Like world location, regional location is a question of facts plus the significance of those facts at any given historical period. Just as it was found necessary to consider world location in relation to two systems of reference, the geographic and the historical, so the full meaning of regional location becomes apparent only after considering both the geography and the historical and political significance of a state's immediate surroundings.Regional location determines whether neighbors will be many or few, strong or weak, and the topography of the region conditions the direction and nature of contact with those neighbors. The man who once formulated the foreign policy of Manchuria had to do so with one eye on Japan and the other on Russia; every international gesture of Belgium is conditioned by the fact that she lies between France and Germany and across the Channel from Great Britain; and the states of Central America can never for a moment forget that the territory north of them is occupied by one large power and not by several whom they might play off one against the other as their European counterparts, the Balkan states, have been able to do from time to time with their northern neighbors.

2018 ◽  
Vol III (I) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Muhammad Amir ◽  
Muhammad Rizwan ◽  
Saira Bano

The present study is an effort to analyze the mode and intensity of Chinese interests in Pakistan. By examining the policy of pursuit in finding another market in the region, the study aims to understand the current warmth of the relationship between China and Pakistan. Although maintaining a perpetually friendly relationship with China has always been a cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy, yet strengthening this relationship into a structured partnership remained a gradual process in the light of their mutual interests. In the politics of international relations, the relationship between countries is a complex interaction of pragmatic national interests, which are multifaceted and could take an alternate course with changing regional and international scenarios. As both Pakistan and China share many common political, economic and strategic interests due to which both are giving their utmost priority to protect their interests related to the other. This paper will investigate the situation where it is commonly believed that China is inevitable by avoiding the vice-versa. No doubt common threats and challenges faced by both the nation is the major cause to unite them in terms of security, political, economic and strategic fronts.


Ekonomika ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-103
Author(s):  
Dušan Jerotijević ◽  
Živanka Bogavac-Miladinović ◽  
Ljubiša Stamatović

After gaining independence at the Berlin Congress, Serbia became the center around which all the surrounding Serbs gathered, seeking final liberation and unification. The great difficulty for a small Serbia was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which in every way was trying to influence the Serbian internal and foreign policy. In doing so, she succeeded to a large extent during the reign of King Milan, even after his abdication, until the beginning of the XX century. The change in the throne after the May uprising led to the emancipation of Serbia from the influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the influence of other powers, in particular France and Russia. On the other hand, Serbia is increasingly independent in foreign policy and tries to connect with other Balkan states as if it economically strengthens to carry out a national unification mission. That is why the Austro-Hungarian conflict with Serbia on the economic plane, the Customs War, was inevitable. At the same time, this conflict has shown the strength and weaknesses of both countries. Serbia's victory in the Customs War showed her great economic rise, and Austro-Hungary became its fatal enemy.


Author(s):  
Felix Berenskoetter ◽  
Yuri van Hoef

International friendship affects the making and conduct of foreign policy, an angle that is largely neglected in the International Relations (IR) literature. Friendship constitutes the Other as familiar rather than foreign and implies a significant degree of trust, and analysts need to pay careful attention to the various ways close bonds develop and “work” across state boundaries. They need to understand how seeking friends can be an explicit goal of foreign policy and how established friendships function by studying their discursive, emotional, and practical expressions and their impact on decision making in concrete situations and as a disposition for cooperation in the long term. Yet, tracing these bonds and associated practices, especially the informal ones, is an analytical challenge. This article presents international friendship as a particular relationship of mutually agreed role identities embedded in a strong cognitive, normative, and emotional bond revolving around a shared idea of order. It discusses three types of practices unique to this relationship: providing privileged/special access, solidarity and support in times of need, and resolve and negative Othering against third parties. These friendship bonds and associated practices can be observed across three levels: political leaders, government bureaucracies, and civil society.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Cristol

International relations (IR) theory is difficult to define. It is often taught as a theory that seeks both to explain past state behavior and to predict future state behavior. However, even that definition is contested by many theorists. Traditional IR theories can generally be categorized by their focus either on humans, states, or on the state system as the primary source of conflict. Any bibliography of international relations theory is bound to create controversy among its readers. Why did the author choose one theory and not the other? Why did the author choose one source and not the other? Indeed, a wide variety of permutations would be perfectly valid to provide the researcher with an adequate annotated bibliography, so why were these particular entries chosen? This article identifies Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism as the three major branches of IR theory. These three branches have replaced the earlier realism-idealism dichotomy. The “English School” could be considered part of any of the aforementioned three branches, and its placement in the IR theory world is the subject of some debate. It has therefore been given its own section and is not included in any of the other sections. Critical IR theory and Feminist IR theory are often considered part of constructivism; however, there is much debate over whether they constitute their own branches, and so they are included in this article (as well as in their own entries in the OBO series), though the sources are somewhat different. Post–Cold War IR Theory is given its own heading because there are a number of theories that were proposed in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War that are still widely taught and discussed in the field. Perhaps the most controversial inclusion is that of Neoconservatism. Though it is quite possible to mount a case for it to be considered a theory of US foreign policy, it is theoretically distinct from other IR theories (the belief in bandwagoning instead of balancing). The final three sections are included to show how political theory has influenced IR theory, and how history and foreign policy have influenced IR theory (and vice versa). The included sections and citations represent both the mainstream of IR theory and those nonmainstream theories that have just started to break into the mainstream of IR theory. This article provides a starting point for both the beginning and the serious scholar of international relations theory.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 748-771
Author(s):  
Heidarali Masoudi

Iranian International Relations academics have impacted both the official and public discourses on foreign policy issues, and vice versa. More specifically, how the “other” is constructed in Iranian International Relations discourses has an important role in determining how Iran acts in world politics. Assuming that International Relations discourses in Iran are inextricably intertwined with the construction of the “other,” this article aims to investigate how Iranian International Relations scholars use metaphors as linguistic tools for the representation of the “other.” Specifically, this article analyzes the metaphorical construction of the “other” in Iranian International Relations academic texts. Applying metaphor analysis, instances of the “other” have been selected and analyzed. The hypothesis was that there are two different categories of metaphors representing the “other”: first, there are context-oriented metaphorical incarnations that attempt to construct Iran’s “relationship” with others in foreign arenas, considering internal and external opportunities and limitations; and, second, there are essentialist metaphorical incarnations of particular actors, such as the US, Israel and Arab states as the “other.” The analysis shows that body and religion can be regarded as nodal points around which context-oriented and essentialist International Relations metaphorical discourses, respectively, have been articulated. The context-oriented discourse is inspired by realist insights into home-grown Iranian International Relations while the essentialist discourse is influenced by official foreign policy rhetoric and Iranian historical culturalism.


Author(s):  
Fulya Hisarlıoğlu ◽  
Lerna K Yanık ◽  
Umut Korkut ◽  
İlke Civelekoğlu

Abstract This article explores the link between populism and hierarchies in international relations by examining the recent foreign policy-making in Turkey and Hungary—two countries run by populist leaders. We argue that when populists bring populism into foreign policy, they do so by contesting the “corrupt elites” of the international order and, simultaneously, attempt to create the “pure people” transnationally. The populists contest the “eliteness” and leadership status of these “elites” and the international order and its institutions, that is, the “establishment,” that these “elites” have come to represent by challenging them both in discourse and in action. The creation of the “pure people” happens by discursively demarcating the “underprivileged” of the international order as a subcategory based on religion and supplementing them with aid, thus mimicking the distributive strategies of populism, this time at the international level. We illustrate that when populist leaders, insert populism into foreign policies of their respective states, through contesting the “corrupt elites” and creating the “pure people,” the built-in vertical stratification mechanisms of populism that stems from the antagonistic binaries inherent to populism provide them with the necessary superiority and inferiority labels allowing them to renegotiate hierarchies in the international system in an attempt to modify the existing ones or to create new ones.


2020 ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
Pallavi Raghavan

The No War Pact correspondence between Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan is interesting for several reasons: its timing, the personalities, the possibilities it seemed to offer for the relationship ship, and the glimpses it offered into the world views of India and Pakistan during the 1950s. The Evacuee Property Conferences, as well as the refugee crisis in Bengal formed the immediate context in which Liaquat Ali Khan and Nehru opened negotiations on a possible No War Pact. In many ways, moreover, the correspondence also shows how deeply connected the shaping of foreign policy was with domestic politics—India’s and Pakistan’s international relations were shaped out of the domestic concerns of both nation. One reason that the correspondence was taking place at all was that it could offer the possibility of some movement on the questions of water and evacuee property. The correspondence offered an opportunity for India and Pakistan to clarify their positions internationally as mutually exclusive entities: at the same time, it was also for progress in leading to more accommodative outcomes for talks around the agenda of separation. This chapter shows that the business of going about disentangling oneself from the other did not in fact necessarily mandate international stances that had to be hostile to one another: they could also be built upon an attempt at dialogue.


Author(s):  
Sandra Bott ◽  
Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl

This chapter illustrates how Switzerland aimed to redefine its neutrality in international relations in the first half of the 1970s. On the one hand, Switzerland maintained its traditional Cold War maxims of armed defense, neutrality, and solidarity. On the other hand, in the face of détente and the perception of a new global context, the Swiss Federal Council, inspired by the Federal Political Department, embarked on a more active foreign policy that aimed to rebrand Swiss neutrality by renewing “goodwill” and trust toward it. Although this reorientation was not entirely successful, it was driven by a profound distrust of previous alliance systems and the process of détente, which eventually led Switzerland to a more globally oriented and defensive posture in international relations.


Author(s):  
Jessica D Blankshain ◽  
David A Cooper ◽  
Nikolas K Gvosdev

Abstract Much has been written about the need to “bridge the gap” between the academic study of international relations—particularly policy-oriented subfields such as foreign policy analysis and security studies—and the needs of policymakers. This important agenda largely focuses on encouraging academics to produce more policy-relevant, accessible research. While such efforts are indispensable, they neglect another important piece of the equation: teaching future policymakers how to translate theory into practice. The bridge needs to be a two-way street. Scholars add value for policy because their work is grounded in theory, offering analytical structure to make sense of a complex world. But applying theory to policy is unlikely to resonate with practitioners who do not have the basic conceptual literacy to grasp why theory-informed research is relevant to their own hands-on concerns. We therefore propose a teaching approach we term “practical theory,” geared specifically for professionally oriented students. Drawing on our own experience in teaching, developing curriculum, and writing for students in professional master's degree programs, we recommend instructors: choose theories and frameworks that are most likely to be useful in practice, update these theories for the times as needed, reconsider nomenclature and banish unnecessary academic jargon, and apply theory early and often.


Author(s):  
J. Samuel Barkin

This chapter looks at the general relationship between realism and constructivism in international relations theory. It introduces both approaches, and argues that the distinctions often drawn between them, such as those between materialism and idealism and between logics of consequences and appropriateness, do not in fact make them incompatible. It suggests that areas of fruitful overlap between realism and constructivism are to be found in the study of the institution of the state and of individual agency in foreign policy. The chapter also lays out the plan of the book, and briefly introduces the other chapters.


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