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Summary POLITICAL SCIENCE 252 NOTES
- Institution
- Stellenbosch University (SUN)
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Foreign Policy AnalysisWEEK 1
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
The High Politics of our Era (pre- covid-19)
- Apparent reordering of international power balance.
- Questions about the future of liberal, rules-based international order established
under US hegemony post- WW2.
- A general shift in states’ foreign policy orientation online with geopolitical shifts.
- Examples:
o 2018 G7 Summit
o US vs China
o US vs Russia
o Brexit
o US Climate Change
The High Politics of Our (COVID – defined) Era
- Pronounced geopolitical shifts and what this implies for foreign policy ahead.
- Multilateralism more, certainly not less important to seek global solutions.
- Examples:
o EU Summit 2020 – economic impact
o Tension between US + China/ Russia rises
Foreign Policy Events on the Home Front
- Feb. 2020 –RSA assumes chair of African Union.
- Focus areas for continent, including
o Conflict resolution (Libya, Sudan)
o Trade integration
o Climate change
- 2019 - 2020, RSA third tenure as non-permanent member of United Nations Security
Council.
- RSA (virtual) participation in global vaccine and other summits.
o e.g. WHO, ILO, OACPS, SA-China summit
- The regular ‘trundle’ of South Africa’s foreign policy machinery.
- Interests in maintaining beneficial relations with Global North and Global South.
, - Multilateralism important.
From these examples can deduce
- Foreign policy straddles numerous levels of actor ship and decision making.
o i.e. state, non- state, governments, individuals, firms
o as wells as issues: climate, conventional security threats
- Traditional channels of diplomacy important (e.g. multilateral/bilateral summits), but
increasingly too the non-traditional (social media – Trump twitter).
- Everyday events that can have major ramifications for states’ foreign policies.
As research field, Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) tries to
- explain how and why states conduct themselves the way they do in the international
arena
- make sense of the interplay between a state’s domestic and its external
environments and relatedly, the state’s international conduct
Foreign policy
- What actors want to accomplish.
- Policy aspirations + statements of goals
- States and other actors’ explicit articulation of their international goals and objectives
addressed to others in the international system
o Foreign policy White Papers (published) explicit for domestic +
international
o Foreign policy strategy documents (published)
o Statements by head of state or senior government officials
o Communiques (e.g. BRICS Summit or G20 Summit agreements)
o Speeches (e.g. PW Botha’s ‘Rubicon’ speech of 1985)
o Voting positions in multilateral forums (e.g. UN)
Diplomacy
- Putting into action of those aspirations + goals.
- The practical articulation of an actor’s external aspirations, purposes and policies,
and entails the official practices through which actors (generally, but not exclusively
states) interact with each other.
,Traditionally foreign policy and diplomacy were the preserve of state activities, but
increasingly other actors have foreign policy (transnational) impacts:
- non-state actors (e.g. Multinational Corporations; Al Shabaab, ISIL, Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, NGOs)
- sub-state actors (e.g. provincial or city governments, trade missions, twin city pacts)
known as para- diplomacy
o Benjamin Barber: USA, New York political theorist + activist (2013) –
If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities.
o In an interdependent world and with increasing economic dominance of
world/global cities (London, Shanghai, Tokyo, New York) city governments
perhaps more efficient than the nation-state.
- Therefore, increasing importance today of
o Economic diplomacy (both state and non-state)
o Track-two diplomacy (e.g. NGOs lobbying governments such as International
Campaign to Ban Landmines, R2P)
o Track-three diplomacy (NGOs interacting with and campaigning each other)
o Celebrity diplomacy (Bono, Bob Geldoff)
o Science diplomacy
- Distinction between ‘high politics’ & ‘low politics’ less relevant.
FP Actors seen in International Setting
- State
o Executive/ Legislative/ Judiciary
o Ministries
Foreign Affairs
Interior (Home Affairs)
Trade/ Industry
Finance/ Treasury
Intelligence
Armed Forces
Environment
o Sub- state
Provinces/ Länder/ Federal States/ Local Government
, - Non- state
o Multinational Corporations e.g. Lehman Brothers
o Regional/ cultural entities.
o Criminal networks including terrorist groups.
o International Organisations (Inter-governmental & international non-
governmental).
o Civil Society Movements (CBOs)
o Media
o Individuals
- State and Non- state
o Epistemic communities
Scientists
Researchers
o Academics
Sources of (State) Foreign Policy
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