Reality of norms and reality: A reply to Fred Grünfeld

<p>In a previous issue of this journal Fred Grünfeld argues that while lawyers fail to take into account social reality once a legal norm has been determined, international relations scholars “skip the norm” and research social reality. On the basis of the subsequent demonstrations, Grünfeld contended (quite rightly) that lawyers and social scientists are not familiar with each other’s work, while studying the same phenomena, although in “different phases”. He, however, argues that such division should be kept in place and lawyers and social scientists should remain working separately. In this reply, I will address both the empirical elements of Grünfeld’s argument as well as his substantive argument of keeping the two disciplines separated.</p><br /&gt

Hawks, Doves and Rogues Liberal Democracies and the Dilemma of Response to Rogue States

Wagner, W.M. [Promotor]Werner, W.G. [Copromotor

Sponsorship behaviour of the BRICS in the United Nations General Assembly

The formation of informal groupings of states is a manifestation of the global shift in economic power. One such a grouping is the BRICS, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which stands out for its importance due to its economic weight, its coverage across continents and the numerous internal differences. The BRICS have collectively flexed their muscle and expressed their intentions to extend their cooperation at the United Nations (UN). Proposals in the United Nations General Assembly (UN GA) take the form of resolutions, which can be written and co-written by the UN member states. This so-called sponsoring of resolutions is a way to push agenda items forward. Using a large-N network analysis, we examine the patterns of co-sponsorship of the BRICS of resolutions adopted in the UN GA plenary sessions. We find that the BRICS cooperate on fields such as economic issues, however, they do not form a coherent bloc when it comes to resolution sponsorship. These results raise the question in what way the BRICS actually cooperate at the UN level

Variation in Delegation Size in Multilateral Diplomacy

Why do some countries send big delegations to multilateral negotiations, whereas others send very small ones? This article looks at both the causes of variation in state delegations to multilateral conferences but also at the consequences of such variation at both micro- and macrolevel. It tests the arguments derived from liberal theory of international regimes, using the case of the NPT Review Process. The results suggest that economic and security interests drive states’ participation in the multilateral settings; normative concerns about global public goods matter less. The article also argues that while countries which are more abundantly present in the negotiations do not tend to get more from international organisations; countries which have been less present during the negotiations tended to be more interested in alternative forum shopping in the form of ‘nuclear ban treaty’ negotiations

Birth of a norm champion: How South Africa came to support the NPT’s Indefinite Extension

In 1995, South Africa was in a special position. It was: a new party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the first country to voluntarily renounce nuclear weapons, led by a charismatic leader, and seen as a champion of disarmament principles. Yet South Africa’s new leaders were also interested in affirming their position within the Non-Aligned Movement, which was adamantly opposed to the NPT’s indefinite extension. Why, then, did South Africa decide to support the indefinite extension of the NPT in 1995? Existing scholarship has ascribed too much credit to pressure from the United States, overlooking domestic debates in South Africa and the bifurcation between professional diplomats and political elites. This article, building on new archival sources and in-depth oral-history interviews with major actors, demonstrates that South African diplomats opposed indefinite extension while South African policy elites allocated little attention to the topic until late in the game. The findings c

The Programme for Promoting Nuclear Non-Proliferation and the NPT extension in 1995

In this paper, I study the Programme for Promoting Nuclear NonProliferation (PPNN), which provided the prime platform for discussing matters of nuclear non-proliferation starting from the 1980s up until the late 1990s. Using newly available archival materials, as well as private papers from the group’s key participants, the paper illuminates the case of the PPNN as a specific platform for the creation and spread of non-proliferation knowledge. The paper also analyses methods for spreading such knowledge, and demonstrates how the group functioned from within

Partisan views of Russia: Analyzing European party electoral manifestos since 1991

The connection between Russia and European political parties has been in the scholarly and popular spotlight recently. While scholars focus on the connection between the far right (and populist) parties and Russia, they have all but ignored the rapidly increasing literature on the role of political parties in foreign policy. This article provides an attempt to bridge these literatures. After analyzing a corpus of party manifestos, the results suggest that there is temporal variation in how European parties have seen Russia since the end of the Cold War. European parties tended to be mostly positive in their views of Russia prior to 2015. Geography and ideology were much less important as a factor in explaining party positions. While some ideological groups share attitudes across different borders, the overall influence of ideology on attitudes toward Russia is minimal

Nuclear Weapons in the Tweede Kamer: analysis of nuclear motions in the Dutch House of Representatives in times of contestation

Past research project

Bringing the outsiders in: an interactionist perspective on deviance and normative change in international politics

In this article, we draw on insights from the interactionist perspective in sociology and international relations (IR) norm contestation literature to explore the relationship between deviance and normative change in international politics. In IR, this is still largely unexplored territory: we already know a great deal about how norms change, yet we know much less about the actual role norm violations play in this process. In order to address this gap, we conceptualize three types of normative contestation and affirmation that take place in connection with deviance (re)construction: (1) applicatory contestation and affirmation, reconstructing the meanings o