Suchergebnisse

The influence of identity on foreign policy, the problem of defining collective identity, & factors that render some identities more influential than others are examined. It is contended that national & state identities possess enormous influence over foreign policy, & leaders of countries affected by deep ethnic divisions are generally not prevented from invoking ethnic identities. Combining constructivist & ethnic political perspectives in analyzing identity's impact on foreign relations may produce significant insights into the relationship. Although a transnational Arab identity is present among many contemporary Middle Eastern nations, it is speculated that conflict continues among these nations because leaders compete to define this transnational identity to their advantage. Two factors that have the greatest influence on a state's decision to adopt a particular identity are identified -- internal ethnic conflicts & domestic political competition. The issue of whether these conclusions are applicable to other global regions, eg, Latin America, is also addressed. Several recommendations for future research are offered, eg, performing a comparative analysis of the impact of ethnic conflict on national identity in Middle Eastern nations. J. W. Parker

Ethnic conflicts have created crises within NATO and between NATO and Russia, produced massive flows of refugees, destabilized neighboring countries, and increased the risk of nuclear war between Pakistan and India. Interventions have cost the United S

Have the major international relations paradigms declined as much as has been asserted? Some scholars view paradigmatic theory and theory in general as on the decline as hypothesis-testing now apparently dominates published research. Such scholars argue that professionalization provides disincentives to theorize. This article demonstrates that these arguments are based on perceptions rather than on the data, on speculation about what professionalization incentivizes and how that influences research production. This article examines several datasets to consider these assertions. The article addresses what is being published, how scholars see themselves and the field, and what is being cited. Because scholars are publishing more articles compared to in the 1980s, the changes that some scholars have observed about the decline of certain approaches and the rise of others are relative and not absolute. A closer examination of the data reveals that what is perceived to be the normal pattern of theoretical output was an outlier in the mid-1990s and that pure theory development has always been a niche enterprise. To explain the trends, rather than stressing the impact of professionalization of the discipline, the article proposes an alternative process that focuses less on structure and more on agency. Social movements aimed to increase the publication of diverse theories and methodologies may have simply been effective: new journals are publishing more and more diverse articles, fostering a wider range of work. The article concludes by exploring the implications of the patterns of theory development in published IR research.

This paper considers some of the lessons that can be drawn from Canada's experience in Afghanistan. It focuses not just on the military but also on the rest of the government, two prime ministers, the opposition, the media, and the public. While the primary lesson might be "do not do this kind of thing again," there are other lessons to draw that apply to Canada's foreign and defence policies every day.

This article examines the Canadian data collected by the Teaching, Research and International Policy project to assess the state of Canadian international relations scholarship. The focus is on the divide, mentioned but not studied in previous work, between the higher profile PhD programs (UBC, McGill, Toronto) and other Canadian universities. The results indicate that the approaches, methods, and theoretical inclinations differ less than often averred, but that the two groups do value different scholars, journals, and presses. And there is more diversity within each side than often argued, which makes the divide itself less deep. The article concludes with some implications about the possibility of a distinctively Canadian international relations.