Abstract

Although middle powers are expected to behave as supporters of international organisations, cooperation, and as promoters of norms and ethics, as well as providers of international public goods, they are not immune to current global ‘de-democratisation’ processes. The authoritarian turn challenges the patterns of behaviour of middle powers. This article discusses the changes of middlepowermanship engagement by presenting an analysis of middle powers’ foreign policy and their narratives thereof. We analyse whether and how middle powers experiencing democracy backsliding have changed their language of political communication and contribution to international relations. We argue that the redefinitions of middle powers’ foreign policy remain in line with their broadly understood foreign policy culture, that is that a middle power embedded within consensus-oriented domestic political context is less likely to change its foreign policy than a middle power embedded within conflict-oriented domestic political context. The argument is substantiated by an analysis of political behaviour of Indonesia, representing the former, and Brazil, representing the latter.

摘要

尽管中等强国被认为是国际组织、合作的支持者，规范和道德的推动者，以及国际公共产品的提供者，但它们也不能幸免于当前的全球“去民主化”进程。专制转向挑战中等强国的行为模式。本文通过对中等强国外交政策及其叙述的分析来讨论中等强国参与的变化。我们分析了经历民主倒退的中等强国是否以及如何改变了他们的政治沟通语言和对国际关系的贡献。我们认为，中等强国外交政策的重新定义与其广泛理解的外交政策文化保持一致，也就是说，嵌入以共识为导向的国内政治环境中的中等强国比嵌入在以冲突为导向的国内政治环境中的中等强国更不可能改变其外交政策。对代表前者的印度尼西亚和代表后者的巴西的政治行为的分析证实了这一论点。