Narratives And Bilateral Relations

In this work, Amrita Narlikar argues that, contrary to common assumption, modern-day politics displays a surprising paradox: poverty - and the powerlessness with which it is associated - has emerged as a political tool and a formidable weapon in international negotiation. The success of poverty narratives, however, means that their use has not been limited to the neediest. Focusing on behaviours and outcomes in a particularly polarising area of bargaining - international trade - and illustrating wider applications of the argument, Narlikar shows how these narratives have been effectively used. Yet, she also sheds light on how indiscriminate overuse and misuse increasingly run the risk of adverse consequences for the system at large, and devastating repercussions for the weakest members of society. Narlikar advances a theory of agency and empowerment by focusing on the life-cycles of narratives, and concludes by offering policy-relevant insights on how to construct winning and sustainable narratives.

Showcases a range of empirical studies that highlight the potential, inclusivity, and durability of the strategic narrative approach to International Relations

This book explores the emerging EU-China relationship with a focus on the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative. It takes a narrative approach to understanding the EU-China relationship as a means to highlight how scholars in the EU and China interpret the narrativization of EU-China bilateral relations and to how this bilateral relationship is refracted through relations with third parties. The volume brings together scholars from China and Europe in the fields of Chinese foreign policy, EU studies, and strategic communication. The empirical focus cuts across policy, publics and media, and across history, political economy and diplomacy. The Belt and Road Initiative, alongside the other policy areas addressed in the chapters, offers ways for people in Europe and China to get to know one another in new ways, and for the EU and its member states and the Chinese state to forge new partnerships.

Communication is central to how we understand international affairs. Political leaders, diplomats, and citizens recognize that communication shapes global politics. This has only been amplified in a new media environment characterized by Internet access to information, social media, and the transformation of who can communicate and how. Soft power, public diplomacy 2.0, network power – scholars and policymakers are concerned with understanding what is happening. This book is the first to develop a systematic framework to understand how political actors seek to shape order through narrative projection in this new environment. To explain the changing world order – the rise of the BRICS, the dilemmas of climate change, poverty and terrorism, the intractability of conflict – the authors explore how actors form and project narratives and how third parties interpret and interact with these narratives. The concept of strategic narrative draws together the most salient of international relations concepts, including the links between power and ideas; international and domestic; and state and non-state actors. The book is anchored around four themes: order, actors, uncertainty, and contestation. Through these, Strategic Narratives shows both the possibilities and the limits of communication and power, and makes an important contribution to theorizing and studying empirically contemporary international relations. International Studies Association: International Communication Best Book Award

Introducing insights from literary studies and narratology into international relations, this study examines the romantic narratives of pirates in Somalia, rebels in Libya and private military and security companies in Iraq.

This book shows how dominant narratives have shaped the national security policies of the United States.

Nine essays discuss the first commercial encounters between a China on the verge of systemic social change and a United States struggling to assert itself globally as a distinct nation after the Revolutionary War, from the arrival in Canton of the first American ship in the 1870s, to the 1844 Treaty of Wangxia in Macao after the First Opium War, to Secretary of State John Hay's forging of the Open Door policy in 1899. Broad in scope, the essays are attuned to the activities of competing European traders, especially the British, in Canton, Macao, and the Pearl River Delta. Kendall Johnsonis director of the American Studies Program and associate professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Beyond Bilateralism analyzes how, and to what extent, crucial global and regional security, finance, and trade transformations have altered the U.S.-Japan relationship and how that bilateral relationship has in turn influenced those global and regional trends.

This qualitative and exploratory study seeks to investigate how China℗þs contemporary public diplomacy promotes its foreign policy interests in Africa, particularly in a post-2008 era. In order to answer this overarching research question, three interrelated purposes are pursued in this thesis. First is to uncover how China conceptualises public diplomacy in order to respond to concerns over its global rise. Second is the exploration of the relationship between the Sinocentric world narrative (that is China℗þs historical position as the world℗þs centre, which some scholars believe expresses itself in its outward communication) and the narratives adopted in its contemporary public diplomacy. Third is how China℗þs public diplomacy adapts narratives in order to manage its foreign policy interests in Africa. Hence, the International Relations constructivist approach is adopted as a useful theoretical framework to explore issues of identity, context and socialisation. It also happens to fit the study of diplomacy well, as essentially a dynamic social process. In order to understand what China is communicating about its rise through its public diplomacy in Africa, a selection of multi-level snapshots are adopted. They include China℗þs communication towards Africa at the global level (the Belt and Road Initiative), regional level (through the Forum on China©Ø2́Ơ0́−Africa Cooperation) and bilateral level (South Africa). Together these snapshots reveal how China℗þs public diplomacy uses historical narrative, promotes its interests and responds to dilemmas posed by recipient milieus. In summary, it appears that China does not instrumentalise the Sinocentric world narrative as a signal of it seeking to create a world order in its image (although it does occasionally draw on narratives from that same historical period, to demonstrate its cooperative and non-threatening behaviour). Instead, it draws on narratives that speak to China©Ø2́Ơ0́−Africa links specifically, such as a shared colonial experience, solidarity politics during Africa℗þs independence, China℗þs support during the Cold War, and more contemporary links, like shared development aspirations. In turn, three broad findings are drawn from the study. First China℗þs public diplomacy that helps meet its interests is conditioned by the African context and its ability to evolve. Second, since China©Ø2́Ơ0́−Africa relations exist in an interdependent world, combining domestic and global developments, as well as recipient-specific processes and factors, the narratives that China uses in Africa are conditioned by determinants whereby they become increasingly co-constituted. Third, it appears that as China℗þs engagement in Africa deepens, the main challenge for its public diplomacy will be reconciling its rhetoric of symmetry with the growing awareness of its inherent structural power. This topic is important, as much discussion exists on globalisation℗þs impact on diplomacy and the need for increased public and outward engagement vis-©3℗ -vis public diplomacy. Yet less is understood about how policymakers ©Ø2́Ơ0́− particularly in emerging and rising powers ©Ø2́Ơ0́− are in fact making sense and responding to such changes (and what informs their choices). In particular, the study situates itself within important IR discussions on China ©Ø2́Ơ0́− including the debate over its rising trajectory and whether it seeks to shape the world in its own image (as reflected by its calls for national rejuvenation, which links China to its past imperial splendour), or if it is actually integrating deeper into the Westphalian world order. The study will also advance from discussions on who China will become, to importantly, what it thinks and how it merges its past and self-perception today. Lastly it seeks to investigate China℗þs increased engagement with the Global South, especially Africa, which provides a glimpse into the normative drivers of its diplomacy, and specifically the subset, public diplomacy, as well as contributing to the debate on its conduct in global affairs.