Liberal Interventionism R.I.P.

While conducting fieldwork in Washington DC this summer, I was struck by the many complaints about President Obama’s lack of interest in pursuing liberal values abroad. “Those working in the ‘democracy sector’, haven’t seen many resources coming their way from this administration”, one critic told me in private. Others quibbled about Obama’s deafening silence on international human rights issues. Let alone the tsunami of TV commentators debating whether the President was keener on allegedly importing European-style big-government socialism rather than promoting, at home and abroad, America’s entrepreneurial spirit and free-market ethos

The global resurgence of religion and the desecularization of American foreign policy, 1990-2012

This thesis conceptually and empirically explores how American foreign policy is changing under the domestic and international pressures brought about by social and cultural processes associated with the global resurgence of religion. It argues that in response to these pressures the American foreign policy establishment, and American diplomatic, foreign assistance and national security practices and institutions are gradually undergoing, since the end of the Cold War andespecially following September 11, processes of “desecularization”. In order to explain these foreign policy changes, this thesis develops a Historical Sociological (HS) approach to Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). This theoretical framework allows investigating the complex causal mechanisms that have led to the emergence of “desecularizing actors” at the domestic American level, which are embedded or responding to macro-processes of religious resurgence at home and abroad. These desecularizing actors have mobilized at the micro-level to challenge at critical historical junctures what they perceive is the problematic secular character of American foreign policy intellectual traditions, state practices and policy-making structures. In order to advance their preferred inherently religious policy agendas, desecularizing actors have articulated a number of principled and strategic discourses, which enable them to successfully contest and renegotiate the boundaries between “the secular” and “the religious” in American foreign policy. This thesis draws from ongoing conceptual debates in the sociology of religion on desecularization and applies this concept to that of a state’s foreign policy. It unpacks how processes of desecularization have taken place at multiple levels and with different intensities across the American foreign policy apparatus. This thesis identifies two broad processes that relate to foreign policy desecularization. First, processes of “countersecularization” in terms of a growing entanglement between functionally differentiated American secular state practices and policy-making structures, and religious norms and actors. Second, processes of “counter-secularism” in terms of a progressive weakening of dominant secular epistemic, ideological, and normative ideational constructs among American policy-makers

American elections at a time of crisis: The risks of introspection

With the primaries in the Republican Party well underway, the campaign season has finally gained momentum. The President’s recent State of the Union address left no doubt that Obama has shed his presidential “coolness” to re-gain the passion of the campaigner. From now on, America will be increasingly absorbed by the process of choosing its next president. With each election comes a new level of spending, scrutiny of the candidates’ public record and private life, media coverage, and, no less important, drama and entertainment. The main networks such as Fox News and CNN have already set the stage for what they will broadcast once more as a “historical election” – with all the hammering insistence that 24-hour news channels are capable of. Nothing less than “America’s destiny”, commentators and presidential contenders like to repeat, will be decided on November 6, 2012

Debating decline, sidelining foreign policy

As the US economy improves, Syria continues its descent into chaos and Iran carries on its enrichment program, foreign policy is acquiring a more prominent role in the 2012 presidential contest than initially expected. So far, the cornerstone of Republican attacks on Obama, hoAs the US economy improves, Syria continues its descent into chaos and Iran carries on its enrichment program, foreign policy is acquiring a more prominent role in the 2012 presidential contest than initially expected. So far, the cornerstone of Republican attacks on Obama, however, is not the merits and demerits of his policies but the president’s alleged lack of confidence in American exceptionalism and hesitations about continued US leadership abroad. Mitt Romney insists that whereas the president is “apologizing to foreigners”, “accepting decline as destiny”, and “believing in a post-American world”, he will ensure that the 21st century will still be an American one. Obama has joined the debate. During his 2012 State of the Union address, the President argued: “anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about”.wever, is not the merits and demerits of his policies but the president’s alleged lack of confidence in American exceptionalism and hesitations about continued US leadership abroad. Mitt Romney insists that whereas the president is “apologizing to foreigners”, “accepting decline as destiny”, and “believing in a post-American world”, he will ensure that the 21st century will still be an American one. Obama has joined the debate. During his 2012 State of the Union address, the President argued: “anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about”

How do religious norms diffuse? Institutional translation and international change in a post-secular world society

This article draws from Habermasian post-secular theory to broaden the scope of Constructivist research on norm dynamics beyond its current Western-centric focus. In an increasingly post-secular world society, we conceptualize the mechanism of institutional translation to explain processes of norm diffusion whereby culturally situated ‘thick’ norms acquire a ‘thinner’ ethical status via a dialogical process of normative contestation across diverse ethical perspectives. Institutional translation differs from, but also complements, mechanisms of norm diffusion, such as persuasion and localization, by illustrating how norms conceived and promoted by non-Western religious-based actors can acquire global legitimacy within the institutions of the international liberal order. The article investigates the explanatory value of this framework through an empirical analysis of two contrasting cases of norm promotion by the Organization of Islamic Conference at the United Nations. The first case considers the global diffusion of the norm of dialogue of civilizations as an example of successful institutional translation. The second case illustrates the failed diffusion of the norm against th

The social and material construction of civilizations in international relations : the 'Muslim world' in American foreign policy after 9/11

This working paper engages theoretically and empirically with the emerging field of civilizational analysis in international relations (IR). It divides the civilizational turn in IR into four developing lines of research: ‘civilizational dynamics’; ‘inter-civilizational ethics’; ‘deconstructing civilization/s’; and ‘civilizational constructions’. The paper argues that out of these four lines of research, ‘civilizational constructions’ appears to be not only the least developed but also a highly promising one. This line of research moves the ongoing debate beyond the current overwhelming focus on whether civilizations exist and matter, or not, in international relations. A ‘civilizational constructions’ line of research sheds instead much needed light on how emerging forms of civilizational-based thinking are contributing to socially and materially construct civilizations as meaningful entities in world politics by embedding them in new international practices and institutions. The empirical import of a ‘civilizational constructions’ line of research is offered in an analysis of American foreign policy. The case study explores how in the aftermath of 9/11, the “Muslim world” asserted itself not only as a civilizational strategic frame of reference in the consciousness of American policymakers, but also as a civilizational organizing principle of American foreign policy practices and institutions

Empty signifier in practice : interrogating the ‘civilizations’ of the United Nations alliance of civilizations

This working paper investigates the reasons underpinning the growing use and widespread resonance of the concept of ‘civilizations’ – defined by cultural and religious markers – in scholarly, policy and public discourses, since the end of the Cold War. Such an inquiry is made all the more relevant since the concept of civilizations has not only remained at the level of language. It has, in fact, become embedded, instantiated, and operationalized within the global governance architecture, most prominently with the creation of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) in 2005. The UNAOC represents a remarkable development in the way international order is being understood and upheld within global governance institutions, as no longer solely dependent on states, or on the advancement of individual rights and economic opportunities, but also on what occurs between and within civilizations. Why have discourses and practices about civilizations acquired the political salience they have in international society at this historical juncture? This paper argues for an understanding of the concept of civilizations as a particular kind of ‘empty signifier’, underpinned by three overarching logics: a logic of interpretation centered on identity, a logic of critique towards liberal ‘end of history’ narratives and projects, and a logic of practicality that matches the interests of multiple state and non-state actors. This argument is empirically illustrated through an analysis of how these three logics, which explain the contemporary power and authority of the signifier of civilizations, also structure the mission, bureaucratic apparatus, and operations of the UNAOC