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(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Foreign policy change as rhetorical politics: domestic-regional constellation of Global South states

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Author(s):
Villa, Rafael D. [1] ; Sundaram, Sasikumar S. [2]
Total Authors: 2
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Int Relat, Dept Polit Sci, Int Relat, Sao Paulo - Brazil
[2] City Univ London, Int Polit Foreign Policy Secur, London - England
Total Affiliations: 2
Document type: Journal article
Source: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; OCT 2021.
Web of Science Citations: 0
Abstract

Although the recent advancements in critical constructivist IR on political rhetoric has greatly improved our understanding of linguistic mechanisms of political action, we need a sharp understanding of how rhetoric explains foreign policy change. Here we conceptualize a link between rhetoric and foreign policy change by foregrounding distinct dynamics at the regional and domestic institutional environments. Analytically, at the regional level, we suggest examining whether norms of foreign policy engagement are explicitly coded in treaties and agreements or implicit in conventions and practices of actors. And at the domestic level, we suggest examining whether a particular foreign policy issue area is concurrent or contested among interlocutors. In this constellation, we clarify how four different rhetorical strategies underwrites foreign policy change - persuasion, mediation, explication and reconstruction - how it operates, and the processes through which it unfolds in relation to multiple audiences. Our principal argument is that grand foreign policy change requires continuous rhetorical deployments with varieties of politics to preserve and stabilize the boundaries in the ongoing fluid relations of states. We illustrate our argument with an analysis of Brazil's South-South grand strategy under the Lula administration and contrast it against the rhetoric of subsequent administrations. Our study has implications for advancing critical foreign policy analysis on foreign policy change and generally for exploring new ways of studying foreign policies of nonwestern postcolonial states in international relations. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 19/08492-6 - Humanitarian intervention norm and foreign policy practices: reputation and moral authority of Brazil and India in international politics
Grantee:Sasikumar Shanmuga Sundaram
Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
FAPESP's process: 17/10021-6 - Reputation, rising powers, and global governance: a pragmatic analysis of commitments of Brazil and India on humanitarian crises abroad
Grantee:Sasikumar Shanmuga Sundaram
Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral