The International Spectator, Vol. 57, No. 2, June 2022

Actors and Discourses in the Security Council

Power and Diplomacy in the United Nations Security Council: The Influence of Elected Members
Vahid Nick Pay and Przemysław Postolski
The cases of Poland’s 2018-2019 and South Africa’s 2019-2020 terms as elected members (E10) of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) can be used to confront the well-known claim that due to a prevailing democratic, legitimacy or efficiency deficit(s) in the structure and/or working methods of the Council, there is no significant space for the E10 members to be influential. By examining these two representative cases, the E10’s capacity to exert such influence can indeed be detected on multiple levels, which highlights the numerous channels and practices available to the elected members to act as veritable norm entrepreneurs at this most prominent institution of global governance.
Keywords: United Nations Security Council; non-permanent members; elected members; South Africa; Poland
Read this article online

Debating Syria in the Security Council: The Discursive Processes of Legitimisation and Delegitimisation of Actors Involved in the Syrian War
Alice Martini
The dynamics of the Syrian war have been surrounded by discursive moves of delegitimisation and legitimisation of the parties involved – above all, the Syrian government. Here, on the one hand, Western countries such as France, the United Kingdom and the United States have discursively attempted to delegitimise the Syrian government and its position within the international community. On the other hand, Syria, Russia and China have discursively rejected these processes and discursively reaffirmed the Syrian government’s legitimacy as sovereign – understanding sovereignty as the nature of a legitimate government. These opposite positions gave rise to discursive clashes in the United Nations Security Council.
Keywords: Syria; war on terror; sovereignty; United Nations Security Council; legitimacy
Buy this article online

US Foreign Policy after Trump

Communicative Power America: A Vision for a New US Grand Strategy
Holger Janusch
President Trump’s credo ‘America First’ marked an end to American exceptionalism. Against this backdrop, President Biden aims to restore America’s moral leadership. Yet, he lacks a clear vision. Against the Trump doctrine and realist arguments for the end of a values-driven foreign policy, we propose a vision for a US foreign policy guided by self-restraint and critical self-reflection. We argue that following such vision is in the strategic interest of the United States. The search for a vision for a US grand strategy is not just an abstract question for International Relations scholars, but of high importance for practice. Shared visions are crucial if not necessary for successful leadership.
Keywords: communicative power; US foreign policy; grand strategy; American exceptionalism; political vision
Buy this article online

The Hobbled Peacemaker: America’s Inability to Satisfy North Korea
Meriel Hahn and Peter Harris
The United States (US) cannot reach an agreement with North Korea because US domestic politics will not support the magnitude of concessions that would be required to turn Pyongyang into a denuclearised yet satisfied regional power. While domestic constraints on the US side are not the only (or even the primary) reason for the non-materialisation of a peace agreement between the US and North Korea, they are an overlooked contributing factor. If future attempts are made to mollify the North Korean regime, they will have to be instigated by US regional allies, with Washington playing a supporting role at most.
Keywords: United States; North Korea; East Asia; nuclear non-proliferation; diplomacy
Read this article online

China’s Growing Influence in MENA and Central Asia

The Narrative of the Rise of China and Authoritarianism in the Global South: The Case of Egypt
Amjed Rasheed
Authoritarian regimes in the Global South diffuse compelling narratives of China, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its development success to reinforce authoritarian practices discursively. A case illustrative of this process is that of Egypt under President Abdul Fatah el-Sisi. An analysis drawing on strategic narrative theory highlights that the el-Sisi regime has been deploying a persuasive narrative on China, its development experience and the BRI to reinforce authoritarianism discursively under the pretext of preserving the state’s sovereignty and achieving progress and the public good. Such a process is called Authoritarian Reinforcement (AR).
Keywords: China; Belt and Road Initiative; Egypt; Authoritarian Reinforcement
Buy this article online

The “New Great Game” in Central Asia: From a Sino-Russian Axis of Convenience to Chinese Primacy?
Paolo Pizzolo and Andrea Carteny
Situated at the crossroads of the Silk Road, Central Asia has been an arena of international competition for centuries. Today, a “New Great Game” appears to be taking place between Russia, China and, to a lesser extent, the United States and the European Union for regional hegemony. In the last two decades, Russia and China formed an “axis of convenience”, both to counter Western influence and to thwart regional challenges; however, this has increasingly turned to rivalry in recent years, with China gradually replacing Russia as the chief power with regard to geo-economic and energy assets in some Central Asian countries. An analysis based on Power Transition Theory points to two possible future scenarios for the rivalry, namely China’s predominance or a Chinese-Russian modus vivendi based on a ‘division of labour’.
Keywords: New Great Game; Central Asia; Power Transition Theory; Russia; China
Buy this article online

Greece from Bailout to Energy Transition

Greek Views of the 2015 Bailout Agreement: A Matter of Power Asymmetries or Socialisation?
Vasileios P. Karakasis
In July 2015, after intense negotiations with its creditors, Greece received a bailout in exchange for fiscal restraint. The coalition government at that time, led by the left-wing SYRIZA party, elected on the basis of an anti-austerity platform, eventually accepted the prevalent austerity frames of the creditors. Through the aid of Q-method, an analysis of Greek opinion leaders’ views of the negotiation highlights that this outcome can be explained in two different ways. The first posits that the ideological overtones that ruling SYRIZA injected in its negotiation strategy exhibited a lack of socialisation and undermined Greece’s already weak bargaining position. The second focuses on the institutional status quo bias in the Eurogroup in Germany’s favour, which discourages any change in the Eurozone. These two views may have partly been influenced by questions of political accountability.
Keywords: Greece; bailout agreements; rational choice institutionalism; socialisation; Q-methodology
Buy this article online

How Energy Security and Geopolitics Can Upscale the Greek Energy Transition: A Strategic Framing Approach
Filippos Proedrou
Energy transitions have been framed in environmental-economic terms, which shaped their scale and design. A strategic frame has emerged, however, with strategic energy security and geopolitical considerations penetrating governmental rationalities. An analysis of strategic framing allows advancing the debate on energy transitions, opening up unexplored avenues for their upscaling and unpacking critical linkages between national policy goals. In the case of Greece, although the strategic framing has started informing governmental rationality, the energy transition is still framed predominantly in environmental-economic terms. Thus, Greece continues to miss out on the opportunities the strategic framing of energy transitions presents for consolidating the country’s energy security and geopolitical stand.
Keywords: geopolitics; energy security; energy transition; Greece; strategic framing
Buy this article online

Book Reviews

Scapegoating Has a Sell-by Date: The Case of Syrian Refugees
Drew Mikhael
Review of: When blame backfires : Syrian refugees and citizen grievances in Jordan and Lebanon, by Anne Marie Baylouny, Cornell University Press, 2020
Buy this article online

The Military, Politics and the State in the Arab World
Florence Gaub
Review of: Military politics of the contemporary Arab world, by Philippe Droz-Vincent, Cambridge University Press, 2021
Buy this article online

China’s Security Policy and Civil-Military Relations: A Reappraisal
Simone Dossi
Review of: Protecting China’s interests overseas : securitization and foreign policy, by Andrea Ghiselli, Oxford University Press, 2021
Buy this article online