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Ethics and statecraft : the moral dimension of international affairs
\"This collection of essays cuts to the quick of the most pressing moral issues facing decision-makers today, from the actions of ordinary soldiers in a combat zone to presidents deciding when and where to use force, human rights violations and enforcement, and legal, economic, and military obligations in a globalized world\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Russia's postcolonial identity : a subaltern empire in a Eurocentric world
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This book applies postcolonial theory to Russia by looking at it as a subaltern empire. It pushes postcolonial studies and constructivist International Relations towards an uneasy dialogue, which produces tensions and reveals multiple blind spots in both approaches. A critical re-evaluation of the existing literature enables the author to produce a comprehensive account of how Russia's position in the international system has conditioned its domestic development, and how this in turn generated specific foreign policy outcomes. Having internalised the Eurocentric worldview, Russia is nevertheless different from the core European countries. This difference is not determined by 'culture', but rather by uneven and combined development of global capitalism, in which Russia is integrated as a semi-peripheral nation. The Russian state has colonised its own periphery on behalf of the Western core, but has never been able to overcome economic and normative dependency on the West. The peculiar dialectic of the subaltern and the imperial during the post-Soviet period has given rise to a regime which claims to defend 'genuine Russian values', while in fact there is nothing behind this new traditionalism but the negation of Western hegemony. Trying to 'defend' the nation from the postulated threat of Western interventionism, the regime engages in a disavowal of politics and thus suppresses popular subjectivity. The only political subject that remains on the horizon of Russian politics is the West, while the Russian people, as any other subaltern, are being spoken for, and thus silenced, by the country's Eurocentric elites and the Western intellectuals.
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Pushing postcolonial studies and constructivist International Relations towards an uneasy dialogue, this book looks at Russia as a subaltern empire. It demonstrates how the dialectic of the subaltern and the imperial has produced a radically anti-Western regime, which nevertheless remains locked in a Eurocentric outlook.
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1. The Postcolonial and the Imperial in the Space and Time of World Politics
2. Russia in/and Europe: Sources of Ambiguity
3. Material Dependency: Postcolonialism, Development and Russia's 'Backwardness'
4. Normative Dependency: Putinite Paleoconservatism and the Missing Peasant
5 The People are Speechless: Russia, the West and the Voice of the Subaltern
6. Conclusion
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Viatcheslav Morozov is Professor of EU-Russia Studies at the University of Tartu. Before moving to Estonia in 2010, he taught for thirteen years at the St Petersburg State University, Russia. He is the author of Russia and the Others: Identity and Boundaries of a Political Communit y and the editor of Decentring the West: The Idea of Democracy and the Struggle for Hegemony .
eBook
The concept of truth in international relations theory : critical thought beyond post-positivism
This book charts the role played by conceptions of truth in the development of a critical tradition of International Relations theory. Providing a detailed account of the conceptions which have shaped the work of Critical Theorists and Poststructuralists, the book reaffirms the importance of epistemic reflection for the discipline. It argues that the partially abstract character of the main strands of critical IR arises not from their concern with epistemic matters, but from their insistence that truth is purely intersubjective. Drawing on the philosophy of Theodor Adorno, the book argues that IR's critical tradition can be rejuvenated by combining its original politicisation of truth with a critical account of its 'objectivity'. The book will be a valuable resource for scholars and graduate students interested in the future of critical International Relations theory.
Book
Partisanship as a Social Identity: Implications for Polarization
The claim that partisanship has developed into a social identity is one of the dominant explanations for the current rising levels of affective polarization among the U.S. electorate. We provide evidence that partisanship functions as a social identity, but that the salience of partisan identity—in and of itself—does not account for increased affective polarization. Using a two-wave panel survey capturing natural variation in the salience of politics, we find that partisanship contributes more to individuals’ self-concept in times of heightened political salience. We also show that partisans can be detached from their Democratic or Republican identity by having them focus on individuating characteristics (by way of a self-affirmation treatment). However, we find only limited evidence that when partisan social identity is made less salient, either by way of natural variation in political context or through a self-affirmation treatment, partisans are any less inclined to express in-party favoritism and out-party hostility. Taken together, our evidence shows that partisanship does operate as an important social identity, but that affective polarization is likely attributable to more than the classic in-group versus out-group distinction.
Journal Article
Theory and practice of paradiplomacy : subnational governments in international affairs
\"This book examines and systematises the theoretical dimensions of paradiplomacy - the role of subnational governments in international relations. Throughout the world, subnational governments play an active role in international relations by participating in international trade, cultural missions and diplomatic relations with foreign powers. These governments, including states in the USA and landers in Germany, can sometimes even challenge the official foreign policy of their national government. These activities, which are regularly promoting the subnational government's interests, have been labelled as 'paradiplomacy'. Through a systematisation of the different approaches in understanding constituent diplomacy, the author constructs an integrative theoretical explanatory framework to guide research on regional governments' involvement in international affairs. The framework is based on a multiple-response questionnaire technique (MRQ) which provides the matrix of possible answers on a set of key questions for paradiplomacy scholarship. This comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of paradiplomacy sheds light on the development of federalism and multi-level governance in a new global environment and contributes to the debates on the issue of 'actorness' in contemporary international affairs. This book will be of much interest to students of diplomacy, federalism, governance, foreign policy and IR, as well as practitioners of diplomacy\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation
Numerous studies find associations between social media use and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation. While such findings are often interpreted as evidence that social media causally promotes conspiracy beliefs, we theorize that this relationship is conditional on other individual-level predispositions. Across two studies, we examine the relationship between beliefs in conspiracy theories and media use, finding that individuals who get their news from social media and use social media frequently express more beliefs in some types of conspiracy theories and misinformation. However, we also find that these relationships are conditional on conspiracy thinking––the predisposition to interpret salient events as products of conspiracies––such that social media use becomes more strongly associated with conspiracy beliefs as conspiracy thinking intensifies. This pattern, which we observe across many beliefs from two studies, clarifies the relationship between social media use and beliefs in dubious ideas.
Journal Article
Global governance facing structural changes : new institutional trajectories for digital and transnational capitalism
\"Contemporary global governance is a field of competing institutional schemes and system of rules. We are at the juncture between old and new, not knowing how to read facts or how to explain processes-in-the-making. Yet, it is more important than ever to analyze new institutional trajectories and the emergence of new institutions to understand their interaction and how they can help renew collective action in a brand new world of global digital capitalism. International political economy and International relations theories have struggled to explain institutional changes as it concentrated on explaining international cooperation and order. This book contrasts international regimes and global governance and present a historically based explanation of the shift from one to the other, while addressing significant case studies looking at telecommunications and the Internet, labor and culture as well as the new schemes addressing trade dispute resolution. In addition, it analyzes the interaction between remaining forms of international regimes and new institutional frameworks, with a particular look at the impact of new technologies on these emerging forms of governance. \"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Real Solutions for Fake News? Measuring the Effectiveness of General Warnings and Fact-Check Tags in Reducing Belief in False Stories on Social Media
Social media has increasingly enabled “fake news” to circulate widely, most notably during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. These intentionally false or misleading stories threaten the democratic goal of a well-informed electorate. This study evaluates the effectiveness of strategies that could be used by Facebook and other social media to counter false stories. Results from a pre-registered experiment indicate that false headlines are perceived as less accurate when people receive a general warning about misleading information on social media or when specific headlines are accompanied by a “Disputed” or “Rated false” tag. Though the magnitudes of these effects are relatively modest, they generally do not vary by whether headlines were congenial to respondents’ political views. In addition, we find that adding a “Rated false” tag to an article headline lowers its perceived accuracy more than adding a “Disputed” tag (Facebook’s original approach) relative to a control condition. Finally, though exposure to the “Disputed” or “Rated false” tags did not affect the perceived accuracy of unlabeled false or true headlines, exposure to a general warning
decreased
belief in the accuracy of true headlines, suggesting the need for further research into how to most effectively counter false news without distorting belief in true information.
Journal Article
Cyber war versus cyber realities : cyber conflict in the international system
\"In 2011, the United States government declared a cyber attack as equal to an act of war, punishable with conventional military means. Cyber operations, cyber crime, and other forms of cyber activities directed by one state against another are now considered part of the normal relations range of combat and conflict, and the rising fear of cyber conflict has brought about a reorientation of military affairs. What is the reality of this threat? Is it actual or inflated, fear or fact-based? Taking a bold stand against the mainstream wisdom, Valeriano and Maness argue that there is very little evidence that cyber war is, or is likely to become, a serious threat. Their claim is empirically grounded, involving a careful analysis of cyber incidents and disputes experienced by international states since 2001, and an examination of the processes leading to cyber conflict. As the authors convincingly show, cyber incidents are a little-used tactic, with low-level intensity and few to no long-term effects. As well, cyber incidents are motivated by the same dynamics that prompt regional conflicts. Based on this evidence, Valeriano and Maness lay out a set of policy recommendations for proper defense against cyber threats that is built on restraint and regionalism\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
COVID-19 and the policy sciences: initial reactions and perspectives
The world is in the grip of a crisis that stands unprecedented in living memory. The COVID-19 pandemic is urgent, global in scale, and massive in impacts. Following Harold D. Lasswell’s goal for the policy sciences to offer insights into unfolding phenomena, this commentary draws on the lessons of the policy sciences literature to understand the dynamics related to COVID-19. We explore the ways in which scientific and technical expertise, emotions, and narratives influence policy decisions and shape relationships among citizens, organizations, and governments. We discuss varied processes of adaptation and change, including learning, surges in policy responses, alterations in networks (locally and globally), implementing policies across transboundary issues, and assessing policy success and failure. We conclude by identifying understudied aspects of the policy sciences that deserve attention in the pandemic’s aftermath.
Journal Article