In this article, we explain Ecuador's foreign policy shift away from the counter-hegemonic project of the Pink Tide and toward the US-led international order. Current scholarship assumes that small states pursue moral recognition from great powers by reproducing the normative principles of the hegemonic order. However, the dynamics of small-state status seeking remain underexplored. How does domestic elite competition, including their preferred strategic narratives and histories of elite socialization, shape policymakers’ preferences for status within alternative international orders? Bourdieu's practice theory enables us to demonstrate how senior Ecuadorian diplomats embody the principles of the US-led hegemonic order. By analyzing documents, speeches, and the results of semistructured interviews, we show how diplomats’ tacit background knowledge led them to reject former president Rafael Correa's initiatives and replace them with a “professional” diplomacy and “pragmatic” foreign policy. Diplomats pursue moral authority not only for its own sake but also as a means of alleviating stigmas associated with Ecuador's intense subordination. In this way, diplomats legitimated the restoration of the pre-Correa liberal state. Their experience of hysteresis, or a mismatch between their habitus and field position, drove them to assert their taken-for-granted truths as a new orthodoxy once Correa departed.

中文翻译：

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霸权的体现：厄瓜多尔外交部的外交实践

在本文中，我们将解释厄瓜多尔的外交政策从粉红潮的反霸权计划转向美国主导的国际秩序。当前的学术假设小国通过复制霸权秩序的规范原则来寻求大国的道德认可。然而，寻求小国地位的动力仍未得到充分探索。国内精英竞争，包括他们偏好的战略叙事和精英社会化的历史，如何塑造决策者对替代国际秩序中地位的偏好？布迪厄的实践理论使我们能够展示厄瓜多尔高级外交官如何体现美国主导的霸权秩序原则。通过分析文件、演讲和半结构化访谈的结果，我们展示了外交官的隐性背景知识如何导致他们拒绝前总统拉斐尔·科雷亚的倡议，并以“专业”外交和“务实”外交政策取而代之。外交官追求道德权威不仅是为了自身，也是为了减轻与厄瓜多尔强烈从属地位相关的耻辱感。通过这种方式，外交官使前科雷亚自由主义国家的恢复合法化。一旦科雷亚离开，他们的滞后经验，或者他们的习惯和现场位置之间的不匹配，驱使他们坚持他们认为理所当然的真理，作为一种新的正统观念。外交官追求道德权威不仅是为了自身，也是为了减轻与厄瓜多尔强烈从属地位相关的耻辱感。通过这种方式，外交官使前科雷亚自由主义国家的恢复合法化。一旦科雷亚离开，他们的滞后经验，或者他们的习惯和现场位置之间的不匹配，驱使他们坚持他们认为理所当然的真理，作为一种新的正统观念。外交官追求道德权威不仅是为了自身，也是为了减轻与厄瓜多尔强烈从属地位相关的耻辱感。通过这种方式，外交官使前科雷亚自由主义国家的恢复合法化。一旦科雷亚离开，他们的滞后经验，或者他们的习惯和现场位置之间的不匹配，驱使他们坚持他们认为理所当然的真理，作为一种新的正统观念。