How do junior allies seek to leverage US foreign policy to their advantage? In ‘The Big Influence of Small Allies’, Robert Keohane delineated the tactics that these states employ. Fifty years on, this paper updates and modifies Keohane’s influential article. It offers a framework for analysing the different influencing tactics: (1) bargaining; (2) direct, indirect and diaspora lobbying; and (3) political

Drone warfare is the most emblematic manifestation of so-called remote warfare. And yet, how ‘remote’ is it really? Based on extensive interaction with French drone crews, and interviews conducted in 2020, this article shows how drone warfare is not so new, not so distant, not so different, not so indifferent, and not so riskless. In other words, how distancing is a constant in the history of warfare;

The most prominent feature of Western approaches to warfare in recent decades has been the centrality of precision-strike systems and related capabilities—most notably unmanned platforms—for delivering lethal force with ever-greater remoteness. Comparative advantages derived from this ‘remote warfare’ are waning due to competitors’ partial adoption of precision weapon systems and the development of

This article provides a re-conceptualization of human security by exploring humanitarian discourse in the EU periphery. It analyzes human security at the Mediterranean borders by focusing on humanitarian, migrant-centered discourse concerned with defending the world’s most vulnerable populations (Barnett in Annual Review of Political Science 16(1): 379-398, 2013). Empirical research has detected humanitarian

The Constitution’s division of powers from which E. Corwin famously asserted an “invitation to struggle” in the making of US foreign policy (1957, 171) has become overshadowed by partisan conflict in the contemporary era. Although much of the extant literature points to Congress’s subsidiary role in foreign policy relative to the presidency-centered model, the appeal of partisanship has worked to further

US arms control policies have shifted frequently in the last 60 years, ranging from the role of a ‘brakeman’ regarding international arms control, to the role of a ‘booster,’ initiating new agreements. My article analyzes the conditions that contribute to this mixed pattern. A crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) evaluates 24 cases of US decisions on international arms control treaties

Just after a decade of its existence, the BRICS group and the rising powers narrative have lost some of their appeal. The economic growth story has stalled, and domestic political challenges curb the group’s foreign policy potency. In the context of the presumed decline of relevance, the article asks what foreign policy value is BRICS providing for its members? An inner-group perspective is applied

An unpleasant truth overlooked is that although war is a great evil, it does have a great virtue: it can solve political conflicts and lead to peace. This can happen when all belligerents become exhausted or when one wins decisively. This study empirically analyzes whether these arguments are supported by evidence on recent military interventions. In our analysis, the effect of military intervention

The main purpose of this paper is searching for answers to the almost enthusiastic support of the Portuguese State for Turkey’s accession to the European Union. The diplomatic position of Portugal is intriguing since both states are historically unfamiliar one to another—not only for their geography (Portugal is an Atlantic country and Turkey a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern one) but, despite NATO

Critics often accuse Congress of abdicating its constitutional authority in foreign policy. One source of evidence of congressional abdication is the relative lack of legislation authorizing foreign aid and other foreign policy tools. Because of recent gridlock, Congress now authorizes foreign policy the only way it can: in annual appropriations bills. I argue that this change in legislative strategy

IR has failed to develop a consistent and coherent conceptualization of revisionism. Conceptual stretching, false comparison, and “status quo biases” pervade the literature. In order to overcome these problems, the article develops a novel typology of revisionism that differentiates revisionist states by the scope of their revisionist aims as well and the means they are willing to use to achieve them

This paper argues that the Trump administration adopted a politicized form of strategic trade policy in its approach to international trade. This strategy combined deregulation, free trade, subsidies, export promotion, and various forms of protectionism. These trade instruments were ideologically incoherent, but the administration designed them so domestic firms could compete against foreign ones and

Weary of costly on-the-ground military interventions, Western nations have increasingly turned to “Remote Warfare” to address the continued threat of terrorism. Despite the centrality of drone strikes to the practice of Remote Warfare, we still know relatively little about their effectiveness as instruments of coercion. This article offers a conceptual framework for assessing their coercive efficacy

The literature on unintended consequences of economic sanctions is well developed, but few studies have addressed terrorism in target states, and none have assessed whether that terrorism becomes more effective when sanctions are in place. In this study, we test whether economic sanctions lead to an increase in the lethality of terrorism. Using data from multiple sources, we find that while sanctions

The Popular Mobilisation Units’ (PMU) rise in Iraq resulted from a de facto, post-2003 hybridization of security governance, opposed to an emergency measure to combat Islamic State after 2014. Rather than a cohesive sectarian movement, the PMU moniker granted a government veneer to an array of pre-existing or new militias, representing a decentralized Shi’a Arab mobilisation prior to 2014, symptomatic

This article scrutinizes the securitization of migrants in Hungary and Slovakia at the height of the EU’s migration ‘crisis’. It illustrates how political narratives portrayed migrants as a security threat and how they intersected with EU discourse and practice. I demonstrate how the logic of securitization was deployed by both governments for domestic political gains. I show that both prime ministers

Various observers have emphasized a recalibration of India’s stance towards the Middle East under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These accounts have generally highlighted Modi’s public overtures toward Israel, including an unprecedented 2017 visit, as public signs of a break with India’s traditional pro-Arab and pro-Palestine approach. Others have interpreted Modi’s successive visits to the United Arab

India’s nuclear policy has remained far steadier under the Modi government than initial rhetoric from his party suggested or what many observers feared. In this essay, three aspects of India’s nuclear policy under the Modi government are examined: India’s nuclear arsenal, its nuclear doctrine, and its nuclear diplomacy. Each of these show that Indian policy has continued to develop along the same axis

Former US President Donald Trump has caused international controversies on Twitter, fuelling conflict and spreading misinformation up until the suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account in January 2021. This paper shows that this Twitter undiplomacy furthered what Bauman called ‘liquid modernity’. For Bauman, new forms of communitarianism appear in liquid times, changing the way politics is conducted

This article investigates refugee categorisations in humanitarian admission programmes. Official selection categories and the way they are enacted at the frontline have significant implications for refugees’ unequal (im)mobility and (in)security as they determine who can safely and legally travel to Europe. Based on original ethnographic data, the analysis examines how different political actors mobilise

In light of recent Saudi Arabian foreign policy, this article examines the valorization of public diplomacy in regional leadership struggles—a widely neglected topic in discussion on regional powers. Concentrating on regions with distinct power hierarchies, the literature offers nuanced explanations for how already-established regional leaders seek to maintain their position but only limited discussion

The aim here was to identify and analyze the political rationale behind the persistent veil of secrecy maintained by the Polish political elite with regard to CIA-run prisons located on Polish territory between 2002 and 2004, in the context of the US-led extraordinary rendition program. To do this, the author offers a brief chronological overview of relevant events, before analyzing the factors contributing

The past few years have seen an upsurge in populist politics around the globe. Yet, its potential impact on the liberal international order has been analyzed mainly from a discursive perspective, and much less is known about actual policy implications. Adopting an ideational approach to populism and taking the case of the NAFTA renegotiation process as a building block in the liberal economic order

How does the interaction of power at the global-regional nexus impact the behavior of regional powers? Neorealism predicts that changes in polarity accompany changes in expectations regarding great power behavior. The cases below consider strategic approaches to crisis mediation pursued by regional powers Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Russia under conditions of bipolarity, unipolarity, and multipolarity

There is a broad consensus that the US–Taliban peace deal does not augur peace and stability in Afghanistan. However, most of the experts have ignored the role of regional powers and their interests and their impact on the US–Taliban peace deal. This paper explores the case of Iran as a potential spoiler and exacerbating violence and instability in Afghanistan. It discusses three reasons for Iran’s

This study aims to explain how a segment Kurdish nationalists in Syria imitates and substitutes the Westphalian conception of sovereign statehood in Syria. It argues that the Partiya Yekîtiya Democrat (PYD-an offshoot of the PKK in Syria) establishes its rule both by mimicking and substituting modern tools of state-making. The study identifies a three-pronged political-military strategy used at the

Despite the central importance often placed on expectations in defining norms, expectations are routinely invoked in a fleeting manner. When they are, expectations are utilised in many different ways, without anyone acknowledging this, which creates confusion. The article argues that expectations should not be viewed as playing a singular role in the norm process. Instead, it puts forward three roles

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-021-00299-z

The human security of both migrants and refugees is at risk at several steps in the process of migration. This work considers that migrants’ human security is not automatically guaranteed once they reach a safe country in Europe either. This article explores how, with the evident will to bypass Italian anti-discriminatory law, derogatory legal instruments, such as law decrees, have been used to increasingly

Created in 1920, the London-based ‘British Institute of International Affairs’ (in 1926 renamed the Royal Institute of International Affairs) has for a century been at the forefront of an ongoing ‘Anglo-American’ conversation about world politics. Yet even though the Institute was regarded from the outset as the institutional expression of a very ‘special relationship’ between the UK and the United

This paper traces the evolution of Indian foreign policy during the two terms of the Obama presidency followed by that of Trump. It argues that that a substantial degree of policy continuity has persisted despite changes in administration in the United States.

Research on small powers has composed a slim section of International Relations literature. More focus has been given on super, great, and middle powers since their interactions have more influence. Differentiating small from middle powers is also problematic, unlike distinguishing great powers from these two. The difficulty of choosing the “right” quantitative and/or qualitative criteria for defining

Advancing the literature on status in world politics, this article argues that Brexit generated status insecurity for the UK. In order to deal with the consequences of the shock represented by Brexit, the UK sought to address status insecurity in two ways. Firstly, it pursued more modes of engagement with European security simultaneously. It continued to play a leadership role in NATO, and it deepened

The interaction between Russia and Gulf countries represents the story of ups and downs, severe conflicts and sharp warmings that can largely be explained by the permanently changing role and place of each of these players at the global and Middle Eastern political arenas. After Russia's “return” to the Middle East in 2012–2015, Moscow's foreign policy towards the Gulf can be explained in terms of

All wars are expensive, but civil wars carry heightened stakes. Defeat can mean loss of territory, the dissolution of the sitting government, or the liquidation of the state itself. Even a victorious government may face tremendous crises and pressures in the short-term. A central bank can signal a sovereign’s creditworthiness to potential lenders, but the bank’s independence (or even existence) can

In the summer of 2017, the identitarian youth organization ‘Defend Europe’ deployed a ship in the Mediterranean to prove sea rescue NGOs’ alleged collusion with human smugglers and assist the Libyan Coast Guard in interdicting migrants. This study shows that Defend Europe developed organizational structures, discourses, and practices that display meaningful similarities with those of the charities

The distributive bargaining literature argues that Germany prevails in the European Union due to its superior power resources. This paper tests this expectation empirically by assessing Germany’s success on actual EU legislation with three sources of data: Council voting records (2009–2019), decision outcomes on the most controversial proposals (1999–2009) and the outcomes of the Eurozone reform (2010–2015)

International organizations (IOs) constitute key arenas in which states discuss common issues. Such debates are central prerequisites for taking qualitatively good decisions. Yet researchers have not examined how IOs foster discussion through their institutional provisions. We conduct a factor analysis of institutional rules of 114 IOs which reveals that two ideal types how IOs seek to induce discussion

Russian actions since 2007 appear increasingly to constitute a realist approach to international affairs. Russia appears to be behaving as a rising power, attempting to become a regional or global superpower. Essential to this pursuit, a state must gather information strategically. We examine one feature of strategic information gathering, called a test, a state action that asserts power but also garners

The three pillars of India’s foreign policy strategy under an overarching preference for ‘strategic autonomy’ are security, economic development, and status. Japan plays a significant part with respect to all three. We employ an analytical framework that assesses how Narendra Modi, in line with a trend set in motion by his predecessors, has attempted to build the India–Japan partnership through a set

In this paper, four elements of statehood will be used to assess the Islamic State’s (IS’s) June 2014 claim of sovereignty, thereby raising important questions over its classification as a “non” state armed actor. As such, it seeks to contribute to a small, but growing, literature which attempts to look beyond IS’s virulent bellicosity and to consider the political institutions it established on their

This paper is a discussion of how indigenous Afrocentric epistemologies proffer critiques and alternative to neoliberal discourses of resilience and what differences it makes for the study of International Politics. There has been an epistemological shift in recent times towards resilience as a form of governance aimed at enhancing the agency and adaptive capacity of populations. This has necessitated

Since 2007, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has debated the security implications of climate change on several occasions. This article addresses these debates by exploring two interrelated questions: What drives the continuous efforts to place climate change on the UNSC’s agenda and to what extent do the UNSC’s debates illustrate an ongoing process of climatization? To answer these, the

This article brings insights from Critical Border Studies (CBS) to bear on the diverse and proliferating borderings that have characterised the EU’s migration crisis. It harnesses the broad ontological and empirical scope of ‘Borderscapes’ scholarship to make coherent sense of seemingly disparate, plural borderings without eliding their diversity or particularity. It conceptualises the ‘borderscape’

For all the complexities of India’s politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to have his economic path cut out for him. His ‘Achche din aane waale hein’ (good days are coming) campaign, which had won him a resounding election victory in 2014 for his first term, suggested that Modi’s primary goal was growth and development for his country and people, and hence also an agenda of economic reform

Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia in November 2014 was the first for an Indian Prime Minister in almost three decades and promised much. Modi declared that Australia was no longer on the ‘periphery’ of New Delhi’s ‘vision’, ‘but at the centre of our thoughts’. He pledged to work with Canberra at the G20 and regional multilateral forums, deepen the bilateral security partnership, and conclude a free

Donor states may delegate to other actors to deliver aid through partnerships. We ask whether some partnerships are more effective than others with democratization aid. We identify five actors, arguing that they can affect the recipient’s democracy outcomes via the fungibility of the funds. We hypothesize that organizations that have relationships of accountability and dependency to the donor are most likely

Existing literature on economic sanctions is abundantly clear regarding the motivation of countries to impose sanctions on other nations. Yet, there are few scholarly works on the motivation behind the improbability of economic sanctions in a specific country or region. In other words, the key question is not ‘why do states impose sanctions?’ but rather ‘why do not states impose sanctions is spite

The concepts and theories of small state studies, a sub-discipline of international relations, have been connected to Western political development, making their applicability in regions outside of Europe questionable. Using the framework of the English School, the present article aims at identifying the main elements of small state theory which are needed to be altered to make it suitable for the

While Giorgio Agamben’s political theory of the exception received a great deal of attention in the early 2000s, he is once again riding a wave in International Relations theory as the growing community of “theologies of the International” investigates the many contributions of theological inquiry for world politics. At the same time as his works provide a common point of conversation between critical

Post-Weberian scholarship remains divided between a conception of legitimation as an exercise of justification by rulers and legitimation as the necessary consent given by the ruled. Going beyond these contending approaches, the field now envisions legitimation as an interactive process linking the authorities of international and regional organizations to various stakeholders. This is a significant

Is Europe headed towards nonpolarity? What would that entail for the future stability and security of the continent? Taking its cue from IR debates about the effects of polarity on international order, the article develops conceptual tools and an analytical narrative concerning Europe during the post-Cold War era. It refines the concept of a Great Power by suggesting the notion of ‘ordering agents’

Created in 2010 during the international climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, the Mesoamerican alliance of peoples and forests (AMPB) lobbies for the recognition of territorial rights, which it frames as a fundamental safeguard in the global fight against climate change. On the one hand, it seeks to participate in global climate arenas, so as to capture the wide political and financial opportunities

This article introduces the special issue by going beyond the traditional debates about geopolitics and great power rivalry. Instead, it examines the emergent and highly complex world of Central Eurasia, in its transformative effort to reorder itself in response to both global and local change. In particular, the paper (and the volume) focuses on two interrelated themes: one of a changing Russia, that

Inspired by the literature on populist social movements and Ralph Nader’s convergence thesis, this paper aims to understand the potential for a left–right anti-corporate political convergence in the USA. We use the academic interpretation treating populism as a citizen’s reaction against perceived unresponsive elites, where anti-corporate grievances voiced by populist movements reflect feelings of

The main aim of the article is to compare the energy relations of the EU with current (here represented by Angola) and potential energy-resource suppliers (here represented by Tanzania) in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2007–2018. In this article, the external actorness of the EU in its energy relations is analysed and specified based on a set of predefined criteria of a modified concept: (1) external recognition

In this article, we analyze the patterns of sexual violence against Albanian women during the Kosovo conflict (1998–1999) as a weapon of the Milosevic regime’s campaign of ethnic cleansing. We used a broad combination of sources: a secondary literature of history and social science, human rights reports, trial records, our oral history of survivors, interviews with advocates and psychologists handling

Climate change is increasingly shaping security narratives, including military strategy. While considering climate change a security issue, the military’s role in this discourse and praxis becomes critical as a security actor. However, the interrelationships between climate change, security and the military are conceived and approached by different states diversely. Within different states, this triangular