This paper develops a theoretical approach to state socialization grounded in role theory. Role theory, in particular the role location process, offers a way to connect grand International Relations theory and inquiry to the analysis of specific foreign policy actions through the socialization concept. The role location process is presented as a stylized socialization "game" that models the interaction of a state, its socializer(s), and the interested audience as it reacts to cues and demands. This model is then applied to several episodes of early Israeli history (1948-1956) covering the emergence of the sovereign state through its achievement of small state status in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis. Adapted from the source document.
This article provides a theoretical and empirical account of the zone of negative peace thought to encompass the 16 states of West Africa from independence through the early 1990s. I draw on constructivist theory to argue that the zone of negative peace is a particular kind of interstate culture resulting from the formation of rival role relationships between states in the region. This theoretical approach combined with a compatible empirical measure of rivalry allows a quantitative test of a variety of well-known explanations for the zone of peace phenomenon. The simultaneous equations statistical analysis allows us to model the effect that rival role relationships have on the Lockean culture of anarchy, and vice versa (i.e. the mutual constitution of agents and structures). The results also indicate that a Lockean culture of anarchy, or zone of negative peace, is affected by factors emphasized by realists, liberals, and constructivists in the West African context. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Ltd. & ECPR-European Consortium for Political Research.]
This article investigates the relationship between civil war onset and state capacity through a focus on the role of primary commodities. This is accomplished by moving the focus of the civil war literature away from an almost exclusive concern with the incentives of rebels to a consideration of both rebels and rulers as revenue seeking predators. This predatory theory approach expects that higher levels of state capacity should deter civil war onset, while civil war onset should reduce state capacity. Further, natural resource rents are expected to enhance state capacity, rather than increase the likelihood of civil war onset. In order to deal with the endogeneity posed by including fiscal measures of state capacity in single equation models of civil war onset, this study employs a simultaneous equations framework. This framework allows us to capture the effects of civil war onset on state capacity and vice versa, as well as the effects of primary commodities on both endogenous covariates. The main findings from the statistical analyses include: state capacity does not affect civil war onset, but civil war onset reduces state capacity; and primary products directly affect only state capacity — they do not directly affect civil war onset, as found in previous contributions to the literature.
In: Conflict management and peace science: CMPS ; journal of the Peace Science Society ; papers contributing to the scientific study of conflict and conflict analysis, Band 27, Heft 4, S. 347-369