Strategic Culture: From Clausewitz to Constructivism; Strategic Insights, v. 6, issue 10 (November 2005)

This article appeared in Strategic Insights, v.6, issue 10 (October 2005)Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Agentic constructivism and the Proliferation Security Initiative: Modeling norm change

Recent developments in global politics and international relations theory have raised questions about the strength of international norms. Critical constructivists identify instances of norm change, contestation, and even regress, arguing that norms may be less deeply internalized and more fragile than often assumed. This study builds on contemporary constructivist scholarship to advance a model of elite-driven norm change with stages of redefinition and substitution through contestation. It conducts a plausibility probe of the model by analyzing the development of the Proliferation Security Initiative, the US-led program that appeared designed to change normative principles from non-proliferation to counter-proliferation and from freedom of navigation on the high seas to maritime interdiction of suspect weapons and technology shipments. The model lends valuable insights on the evolution of norms to accommodate new realities over the last decade, and it suggests the need for more contingent and multi-linear theories of international cooperation

Irrational Exuberance? The 2010 Npt Review Conference, Nuclear Assistance, and Norm Change

The 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) produced a Final Document calling for an extension of the principles of the nonproliferation norm as well as steps toward complete disarmament. This article looks beyond the rhetoric, however, to examine recent decisions by great powers to expand nuclear trade with non-NPT countries and the implications of these decisions on the traditional nonproliferation norm of restraint. This article seeks to contribute to constructivist theory by supplementing existing accounts of norm creation and establishment with a new model of norm change. The article develops a case study of the 2008 US-India nuclear deal to highlight the role of elite agency in key stages of norm change, including redefinition and constructive substitution through contestation. It concludes that the traditional nonproliferation norm may be evolving in new directions that are not well captured by existing theoretical frames. © 2011 Monterey Institute of International Studies, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

Nonproliferation and Norm Discourse: An Agentic Constructivist Model of U.S. Nuclear Export Policy Changes

U.S. government claims of support for the global nonproliferation norm sometimes appear contradicted by dramatic changes in its policies regarding support for peaceful nuclear energy programs around the world. This study offers a new accounting of foreign policy decision making relative to global nonproliferation normative architectures as a product of norm‐based differences between presidents and congressional leaders over technology sharing. It advances an agentic constructivist model of the export policy process and conducts a plausibility probe of the model through three case studies of export control reform debates. It also examines alternative theory models focused on strategic imperatives, foreign policy change, and neoliberal economics. Case evidence suggests that different alignments in norm stewardship, and the interactions of key agents regarding perceived norm commitments, help account for export policy struggles. These often translate into unique and complex policy outcomes, suggesting the value of contingent models of policy change and international cooperation

Redefining the Nonproliferation Norm? Australian Uranium, the Npt, and the Global Nuclear Revival

Optimists maintain that great powers oppose the proliferation of nuclear weapons and have a moral aversion to their use. The Eighth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in May 2010 produced a final declaration calling for steps toward complete disarmament. Yet recent optimism belies some contradictory, incremental foreign policy decisions taken by countries like Australia and the United States that could produce a change of meaning for the nuclear nonproliferation norm. Building on the norm life-cycle model developed by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, this article links a new constructivist model of normative change to decisions by developed states to expand the global nuclear fuel cycle and provide sensitive nuclear assistance to other countries. An exploratory case study of Australian government policies on nuclear energy and uranium exports (2006-present), including the possible sale of uranium to India, a non-NPT signatory, suggests an important role for elite agency in norm redefinition. © 2011 The Author. Australian Journal of Politics and History © 2011 School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd

Continuity or Change? The Strategic Culture of Australia

Important puzzles remain in security policy literature, including whether strategic culture can change over time, and if so, under what conditions. This study proposes a model of strategic cultural change that identifies key actors and conditions at work in the process. The article then applies the model to chart the evolution of Australian security policy in the past two decades. We find that structural changes, including geostrategic situation and new security threats, coupled with elite interpretation and discourse, have produced a new regional defense plus strategic cultural frame for Australia. This, in turn, has led to measureable changes in defense policy. This work concludes with insights on the implications of change for the broader literature on strategic culture and constructivist security studies. © 2011 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Executives and foreign policy

This chapter highlights the important role that foreign policy executives play in foreign policy decision-making around the world. In contrast to traditional international relations (IR) theories that argue foreign policies are determined primarily by systemic pressures of anarchy, economic interdependencies, and prevailing norms, we focus on two key themes that emerge in foreign policy analysis (FPA) research on executives in particular: power and processes. Our survey of the literature suggests just how important it is to study executive behaviour 'in the rooms where it happens' for FPA. The chapter also identifies promising future directions for research on these themes, calling for attention to the nature of states and implications for executive foreign policy powers and a widening of empirical, methodological, and conceptual lenses in analyses of executive foreign policy-making. These developments could strengthen bridges between FPA and IR, as well as between FPA and public policy and comparative politics.</p

Are All Foreign Policy Innovators Created Equal? The New Generation of Congressional Foreign Policy Entrepreneurship

This study revisits Carter and Scott’s model of congressional foreign policy entrepreneurship (2004, 2009, 2010) to evaluate how a new generation of legislative innovators, including Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, may influence US foreign policy. Specifically, this study proposes two new types of foreign policy entrepreneurs in Congress—“revolutionaries” and “mercenaries”—and examines their different motivations, policy objectives, and strategies to attempt to influence or change state behavior. Case evidence suggests that in a new era of partisanship and polarization, more complex models of players, strategies, and measures of success are needed

Contesting the heavens : US antipreneurship and the regulation of space weapons

Research for this article was supported by funding from The Leverhulme Trust (Research Fellowship – RF-2020-212\7).The 1967 Outer Space Treaty reserved outer space for ‘peaceful purposes’, yet recent decades have witnessed growing competition and calls for new multilateral rules including a proposed ban on the deployment of weapons in space. These diplomatic initiatives have stalled in the face of concerted opposition from the United States. To explain this outcome, we characterise US diplomacy as a form of ‘antipreneurship’, a type of strategic norm-focused competition designed to preserve the prevailing normative status quo in the face of entrepreneurial efforts. We substantially refine and extend existing accounts of antipreneurship by theorising three dominant forms of antipreneurial agency – rhetorical, procedural, and behavioural – and describing the mechanisms and scope conditions though which they operate. We then trace the development of US resistance to proposed restraints on space weapons from 2000–present. Drawing on hundreds of official documents, we show how successive US administrations have employed a range of interlayered diplomatic strategies and tactics to preserve the permissive international legal framework governing outer space and protect US national security priorities. Our study illustrates the specific techniques and impacts of resistance in a domain of growing strategic importance, with implications for further refining understandings of norm competition in other issue areas.PostprintPeer reviewe