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Discourse analysis offers an extremely diversified landscape, spanning time and disciplines far beyond the field of international relations (IR). With a rich lineage, it comes as no surprise that under the label "Discourse Analysis" (DA) one cannot find a unified theoretical family within IR but rather a plurality of heterogeneous ways of approaching discourse analysis. By leveraging the wealth of discourse analytical works accumulated over more than three decades, this article intends to discuss some of the main theoretical tenets of three competing perspectives on discourse analysis (PDAs): constructivism, critical realism and poststructuralism. It does so by tracing their links to their respective putative philosophical referents. Distinct from Milliken (1999), who consciously stresses the commonalities between various PDAs, this contribution identifies the differences between them. The paper proceeds as follows. First, it locates IR PDAs in the framework of debates over the core branches of the philosophy of social science. Constructivist, poststructuralist and critical realist PDAs will be located along both a foundational/nonfoundational ontological continuum and a positivist/post-positivist epistemological continuum. Secondly, it retraces the main tenets of post-structuralist, constructivist, and critical realist PDAs to discourse by identifying the relevant debates that have characterized the approach to discourse analysis in IR. Finally, it presents some methodological guidelines and provides examples on how DA endeavors have been practiced.

AbstractIn the field of political theory, few authors have spurred intellectual tirades and triggered collective fantasy as much as the sixteenth-century Florentine Secretary Niccoló Machiavelli. Despite all controversies, in the discipline of International Relations (IR) Machiavelli and hisThe Princehave been almost exclusively associated with classical realism. This largely unchallenged association contributed to the edification of the myth ofThe Princeas the ruthless symbol ofraison d'état, carrying transcendental lessons about the nature of politics and a set of prescriptions on how helmsmen should behave to seize, maintain, and reinforce their power. The realist hijacking of Machiavelli is at the core of the foundation of classical realism as an IR theory and its location at the very epicentre of IR as a discipline. This appropriation has, in turn, obscured alternative myths ofThe Prince,which depart from Machiavelli's reflections on thePrincipati nuovito readThe Princeas a radical manifesto for political change. The opening of the semantic space in the field of IR – spurred by the so-called interpretive turn – offers an opportunity to break this monochromatic reading. This article delves into two competing myths ofThe Prince: the classical realist myth and Gramsci's 'progressive' one to demonstrate its contested nature.

This contribution focuses on the implications of the institutional reform advanced by the Lisbon Treaty for the framing of discourses of European institutional actors. The article adopts a focused linguistic strategy aimed at identifying patterns of pronominal selection as useful tools to depict both the ways in which different EU actors in Brussels elaborate their sense of belonging, and also patterns of horizontal and vertical inter-institutional cooperation and conflict. The article firstly introduces the data and methodology employed in the analysis. Secondly, it sheds light on the main institutional arrangements established in the aftermath of Lisbon. Thirdly, it illustrates how referential/nomination strategies are on aggregate realised by interviewees. Finally, it presents an analysis of pronominal selection and contextualises the difficulties of individual actors working for the EU's institutions in dealing with the current institutional structure.

This article looks at ways in which the EU's institutional representatives and individual civil servants of the Commission and the European External Action Service frame their discourse on the EU's international role and values. It proceeds as follows. Firstly, it introduces the data and methodology employed in Discourse Historical Analysis. Secondly, it presents a section to illustrate the metaphors that have been adopted to organise collected material. It identifies three main patterns of discourse-making and associates them with metaphors coming from the Western European literature tradition: two figures coming from Voltaire's Candide - Candide and Pangloss - and a character from a Mozart opera, Don Giovanni. Finally, the article focuses on perceptions of the EU's international actions and its core underlying values. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright NISA.]

This article looks at ways in which the EU's institutional representatives and individual civil servants of the Commission and the European External Action Service frame their discourse on the EU's international role and values. It proceeds as follows. Firstly, it introduces the data and methodology employed in Discourse Historical Analysis. Secondly, it presents a section to illustrate the metaphors that have been adopted to organise collected material. It identifies three main patterns of discourse-making and associates them with metaphors coming from the Western European literature tradition: two figures coming from Voltaire's Candide – Candide and Pangloss – and a character from a Mozart opera, Don Giovanni. Finally, the article focuses on perceptions of the EU's international actions and its core underlying values.

This article aims to present an overall portrait of the Union as an international actor, as stemming from the visions that officials working in the delegations of the European Commission hold. The analysis proposed draws on different sources. First, an analysis of speeches, declarations, official statements and informative materials published on some 80 websites of the delegations. These websites propose a standardized presentation of 'the EU as a global player', which can help us to define the official position of the European Commission on the issue. An unofficial picture of the EU as a global player stems from the analysis of 48 semi–structured interviews. Although there is relative similarity in the presentation of the EU's international image, these offical and informal intepretations are not always interchangeable.

This edited volume explores European cultural diplomacy, a topic of growing interest across the scholarly and applied public policy communities in recent years. The contributions focus on Europe, culture and diplomacy and the way they are interlinked in the contemporary international context. The European Union increasingly resorts to cultural assets and activity for both internal and external purposes, to foster European cohesion and advancing integration, and to mitigate the demise of other foreign policy components, respectively. This calls for an analysis of the strategic role of culture, especially as it relates to the realm of EU external action. The chapters provide a conceptual discussion of culture in international relations and examine how this concept relates to cultural diplomacy and cultural strategy. The authors discuss roles and relationships with the EU's 2016 Global Strategy and current EU attempts to foster the EU's political and societal resilience.