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Complexities of State-Building in Somaliland International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-11 Monica Fagioli
s Since the mid-2000s, state-building in Somaliland has emerged as a complex mixture of coexisting, competing programs, political aspirations, and foreign agendas. This article applies a dialectical approach to focus on the scalar relations among actors and models of capacity-building, from programs’ design to their implementation. Drawing on science and technology studies, I use the term “complexities”
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The Transit Fix—Border Externalization and the Interplay of Capital and Race in the Transit “Migration” State International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-11 Timor Landherr
What happens after border externalization? States and regional organizations of the Global North increasingly engage in transnational migration management that seeks to prevent potential irregular migration beyond their territory. Despite the impressive financial and political resources the involved actors mobilize to reach this goal, little is known about the effects of this strategy on their target
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The Saavedra Lamas Peace: How a Norm Complex Evolved and Crystallized to Eliminate War in the Americas International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-10 Luis L Schenoni, Gary Goertz, Andrew P Owsiak, Paul F Diehl
s After the Napoleonic Wars interstate war regularly occurred throughout the Western Hemisphere—until in matter of decades it disappeared. After the 1930s even low-level militarized interstate conflict became less frequent, shorter, and less severe over time. What explains the change in this specific region and historical jucture? We argue that leaders in the Americas identified territorial disputes
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Positionality Statements as a Function of Coloniality: Interrogating Reflexive Methodologies International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-09 Jasmine K Gani, Rabea M Khan
s Declaration of positionality and the confession of privilege as a way of revealing unequal power dynamics in knowledge production has become an increasingly encouraged reflexive practice in international relations and other disciplines. However, we interrogate the potentially negative implications of this methodology, occurring through a reification of material, assumed, and imagined hierarchies
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Diplomatic Representation and Online/Offline Interactions: EU Coordination and Digital Sociability International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-09 Elsa Hedling
European Union (EU) diplomatic representation in third countries is performed by both the Member States and by the EU Delegation. This hybrid system of representation functions through EU coordination. As social media have become important channels of state representation, coordination also takes place in the domain of digital diplomacy. This article analyzes how the EU Member State embassies and the
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The Construction of Terrorist Threat in Mali: Agency and Narratives of Intervention International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-08 Joe Gazeley
s Through a close textual analysis of US diplomatic cables and other relevant documents, this article provides new empirical data to trace the mutual construction of Mali as a site of terrorist threat. It argues that this mutual construction paradoxically enhanced the agency of Malian foreign policy elites in negotiations with their US interlocutors and highlights the effectiveness of Malian deployment
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Foreign Sponsorship of Armed Groups and Civil War International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-05 Michael A Rubin, Iris Malone
s Under what conditions do armed groups escalate their campaigns to civil war? Existing research suggests foreign states’ material support is critical to explaining armed groups' conduct during civil war and, thereby, war intensification, duration, and outcomes. Thus far, little attention has been paid to understanding whether and how foreign support influences whether armed groups fight civil wars
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Credibility in Crises: How Patrons Reassure Their Allies International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-05 Lauren Sukin, Alexander Lanoszka
s How do citizens of US allies assess different reassurance strategies? This article investigates the effects of US reassurance policies on public opinion in allied states. We design and conduct a survey experiment in five Central–Eastern European states—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania—in March 2022. Set against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this experiment asked respondents
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Mass Emigration and the Erosion of Liberal Democracy International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-05 Daniel Auer, Max Schaub
s In many regions of the world, liberal politics is on the retreat. This development is usually explained with reference to inherently political phenomena. We propose an alternative explanation, linking democratic backsliding to deep-reaching demographic change caused by mass emigration. We argue that because migrants tend to be more politically liberal, their departure, if quantitatively significant
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Compliance Agreements: Emergent Flexibility in the Inter-American Human Rights System International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, Mariana Brocca, Isabel Anayanssi Orizaga Inzunza
Are agreements between states and victims an effective way to achieve reparations for human rights violations? We identify and evaluate a legal instrument hitherto ignored in analyses of the Inter-American Human Rights System: compliance agreements. These agreements emerged as a tool to negotiate the implementation of recommendations made by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to states responsible
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Bending the Automation Bias Curve: A Study of Human and AI-Based Decision Making in National Security Contexts International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-04-01 Michael C Horowitz, Lauren Kahn
Uses of artificial intelligence (AI) are growing around the world. What will influence AI adoption in the international security realm? Research on automation bias suggests that humans can often be overconfident in AI, whereas research on algorithm aversion shows that, as the stakes of a decision rise, humans become more cautious about trusting algorithms. We theorize about the relationship between
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Colonial Redress and the Unintended Consequences of Global Opportunities International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-30 Claudia Junghyun Kim
Research shows that the rise of political and discursive opportunities enabled by the diffusion of progressive global norms has empowered many aggrieved local actors. Drawing on colonial victims’ transnational redress movements, I add to this literature in two ways. First, rejecting the common association between global opportunities and local movement facilitation and success, I make a counterintuitive
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Terrorists versus Rebels: The Strategic Use of Implicit Amnesty in the Peace Process in Mali International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-30 Sophie T Rosenberg
Why do governments block efforts to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable, including against actors linked to proscribed groups? This article explores the Malian government’s decisions to support or suspend accountability efforts against prominent individuals during the peace negotiations between 2012 and 2017, including those with links to jihadist groups. By tracing the micro-processes
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No Safe Haven: Operation Condor and Transnational Repression in South America International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-30 Francesca Lessa, Lorena Balardini
Transnational repression, i.e., the deliberate targeting of refugees and dissidents by states across borders, is a relatively understudied subject in international relations. This article analyzes why states act together to persecute political opponents abroad and explains variations in such practices. It proposes a theory of cooperation in transnational repression and uses the case study of Operation
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Carrots as Sticks: How Effective Are Foreign Aid Suspensions and Economic Sanctions? International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-28 Claas Mertens
Existing research shows that economic coercion successfully influences targeted states’ behavior 38 percent of the time. This article integrates research on economic sanctions and foreign aid by assessing the relative effectiveness of two types of economic coercion: economic sanctions and foreign aid suspensions. It argues that suspending aid is more effective than adopting economic sanctions because
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Effects of Self-Legitimation and Delegitimation on Public Attitudes toward International Organizations: A Worldwide Survey Experiment International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-28 Farsan Ghassim
Public views on international organizations (IOs) have become a matter of central concern. While actors in world politics increasingly try to legitimize or delegitimize IOs, scholars have begun investigating such phenomena systematically. This paper provides the most comprehensive IO (de)legitimation study to date. Building on cueing theory, and considering input as well as output legitimacy, I examine
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Elitist Remedies? Complaint Resources and Representation in International Human Rights Bodies International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Christoph Valentin Steinert
This article investigates determinants of representation in international human rights bodies. It is argued that socioeconomic factors shape whether human rights abuses translate into complaints to international human rights mechanisms. To seek international remedy, victims of human rights abuse must be aware of remedies, and they require complaint literacy to file complaints. Alternatively, they need
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The Mercurial Commitment: Revisiting the Unintended Consequences of Military Humanitarian Intervention and Anti-Atrocity Norms International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Hiroto Sawada
The debate on whether military humanitarian intervention and anti-atrocity norms, such as the responsibility to protect, cause perverse incentives, and provocative violence by a rebel group, has yet to reach a consensus. Specifically, existing theories are unable to fully explain why “emboldened” rebel groups provoke the government in some cases but not others. This paper reconciles this unresolved
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Diversity without Adversity? Ethnic Bias toward Refugees in a Co-Religious Society International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Anna Getmansky, Konstantinos Matakos, Tolga Sinmazdemir
What shapes the host population’s willingness to accept refugees into social, economic, and political life in their country? We argue that refugees’ ethnicity plays a key role—both directly and indirectly—in shaping support for having refugees as neighbors and for granting them a work permit or citizenship. Fielding a conjoint experiment in Turkey (N = 2,362), we find that locals discriminate against
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Public Opinion, Rivalry, and the Democratic Peace: Experimental Evidence from South Korea International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-23 Gidong Kim, Yu Bin Kim, Dongjin Kwak
Recent studies on the public opinion mechanism of the democratic peace have demonstrated experimentally that democratic citizens are averse to attacking other democracies. The presence of rivalry, however, has long been recognized as one of the important factors contributing to either initiation or recurrence of international conflict. Despite such importance, our understanding remains limited as to
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Economic Globalization's Polycrisis International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-23 Eric Helleiner
In this article, I suggest that economic globalization is experiencing a particularly serious kind of crisis: a “polycrisis.” Use of this term has proliferated recently but with many meanings. I propose that it be defined as a cluster of distinct crises that interact in ways that they and/or their effects tend to reinforce each other. This core definition enables the identification of distinct types
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Rebel Institutionalization, Religious Holidays, and Political Violence International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-23 Xin Nong, Chun-Ying Wu
Identifying a clear relationship between rebel group structures and the use of violence faces the challenge that group structures rarely change over time. We exploit the analytical advantage provided by long religious holidays to address this issue using the principal-agent framework. Religious holidays serve as a focal point and reduce group coordination costs, but also raise the societal costs of
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Central Bankers in Crisis: Interpersonal Trust, Cooperation, and the Creation of the Fed Swap Network during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-23 Aditi Sahasrabuddhe
How do policymakers respond to global crises? I argue that interpersonal trust enables policymakers to engage in ad hoc cooperation, in conditions of crisis and uncertainty. Leaders’ differentiated ties by degree—of stronger, looser, or absent—interpersonal trust influenced economies’ access to Federal Reserve swap lines over costlier unilateral and multilateral alternatives during the 2008 Global
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Informally Governing International Development: G7 Coordination and Orchestration in Aid International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Ben Cormier, Mirko Heinzel, Bernhard Reinsberg
s Informal groupings like the G7 aim to address global development challenges but lack the administrative and budgetary capacity to drive change directly. Instead, the G7 seeks to catalyze international action that reflects its priorities. For example, the G7 attempts to set the international development agenda by publishing annual communiqués with actionable commitments designed to influence the behavior
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Understanding the Determinants of ICC Involvement: Legal Mandate and Power Politics International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Alyssa K Prorok, Benjamin Appel, Shahryar Minhas
What explains the initiation and escalation of International Criminal Court (ICC) involvement in a situation? In light of growing charges of bias against the court, understanding the determinants of ICC involvement is critically important. Building upon research on bounded discretion at international courts, we argue that two potentially competing forces influence the court. While prioritizing impartiality
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Race and International Organizations International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-22 Kseniya Oksamytna, Sarah von Billerbeck
While International Relations scholarship has increasingly addressed questions of race, the literature on international organizations (IOs) has been slower to do so. In particular, it has neglected how race functions within IO workforces. Building on sociological theories of racialized organizations, we develop the concept of racialized IOs. Like domestic organizations, racialized IOs are characterized
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Using Bourdieu's Habitus in International Relations International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Deepak Nair
The concept of habitus is a centerpiece of Pierre Bourdieu's cultural sociology and is among the most popular conceptual imports into the Bourdieu-inspired “practice turn” in International Relations (IR). There have, however, been recurrent questions whether IR work using habitus and Bourdieu mainly “re-describe in different language” what scholars already know about world politics. This article argues
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The Language of Responsibility in the United Nations Security Council, 1946–2020 International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Felix S Bethke, Felix Haass, Holger Niemann
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the United Nations' most powerful institutional body, charged with the “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.” The main instrument through which the Council asserts this power is its resolutions, specifically by using resolution text to attribute responsibility. The UNSC uses responsibility language to assign tasks
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Against Diffusion: Power and Institutions in African–European Relations International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 J C Sharman
Four centuries of precolonial diplomatic, economic, and military African–European relations have been neglected in international relations. Refuting common presumptions about European dominance, before, during, and after the heyday of the Atlantic slave trade, African rulers and merchants were generally in a position of equality or superiority in their relations with Europeans. Contrary to expectations
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Hand-Tying through Military Signals in Crisis Bargaining International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Abigail S Post, Todd S Sechser
Theories of crisis bargaining suggest that costly signals can enhance the credibility of one’s coercive threats. In particular, engaging in conspicuous military mobilizations or demonstrations of force are thought to communicate one’s resolve in a crisis. Yet, there is disagreement about why this might be the case. One set of theories emphasizes the hand-tying political and reputational effects of
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Agency is Positionally Distributed: Practice Theory and (Post)Colonial Structures International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Lou Pingeot, Vincent Pouliot
Why are some practices available to some actors in world politics, but not to others? In this theory note, we develop a theory of agency as positionally distributed: In global politics, the action potentials of groups and individuals vary depending on their location in the macrostructures inherited from common histories of colonial domination and exploitation. We contribute to the understanding of
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A Feminist Critique of International Practices International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Alice Chessé, Maïka Sondarjee
Feminist social theories, especially intersectional and decolonial ones, have been footnotes at best in practice-oriented research in international relations. This disciplinary exclusion of gender studies’ concepts from “international practice theories” (IPTs) or the "practice turn" has marginalized inquiries into power and reflexivity in action. As a result, IPTs have failed to theorize how practitioners’
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The Rise and Fall of Technological Leadership: General-Purpose Technology Diffusion and Economic Power Transitions International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Jeffrey Ding
How do technological revolutions affect the rise and fall of great powers? Scholars have long observed that major technological breakthroughs disrupt economic power balances, yet they rarely investigate how this process occurs. Existing studies establish that a nation’s success in adapting to revolutionary technologies is determined by the fit between its institutions and the demands of these technologies
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How Expert Committees Become Group Agents: Self-Legitimation in the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Monika Heupel, Marlene Joger
The UN human rights treaty bodies—groups of experts tasked with monitoring how states implement international human rights conventions—are increasingly portrayed as powerful collective entities with agency. This article focuses on one mechanism that helps collectives of individuals become group agents, namely internal self-legitimation. By internal self-legitimation, we mean practices such as narratives
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From Diffusion to Diffuse-ability: A Text-as-Data Approach to Explaining the Global Diffusion of Corporate Sustainability Policy International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-29 Adam Chalmers, Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Onna Malou van den Broek
This paper argues that attributes of diffusion objects, in their own right, shape the form and extent of policy diffusion. To date, diffusion scholarship focuses on actor-level attributes (e.g., connections, culture, physical proximity, etc.) to explain what is diffused and how much. Extending existing theory on the impacts of policies’ textual properties on diffusion patterns, we argue that policies
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Speaking Volumes: Introducing the UNGA Speech Corpus International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Linnea R Turco
Many theoretical conclusions core to the study of international politics rely on having access to, and understanding, the rhetoric of international actors. One important development in advancing the empirical study of international relations (IR) theory, therefore, is the availability of machine-analyzable speech data. A collection of fine-grained textual representations of states’ speeches in the
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The Punisher's Dilemma: Domestic Opposition and Foreign Policy Crises International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-23 Fahd Humayun
Existing work on the democratic accountability of foreign policy suggests that when an incumbent incurs foreign policy losses, including but not limited to standing down in a crisis, making costly compromises, or accepting defeat abroad, opposition politicians at home weigh criticizing the government with the national interest. But this work has largely been developed with a view to explaining oppositional
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The Election Effect: Democratic Leaders in Inter-Group Conflict International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-20 Stephen Chaudoin, Sarah Hummel, Yon Soo Park
How does the experience of being elected alter subsequent leader behavior at the international level? We argue for the existence of an election effect, through which a democratic election intensifies in-group identification and generates a sense of obligation to voters, while simultaneously increasing out-group hostility. These combined effects cause leaders to overexert costly efforts in competitive
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Cross-Network Weaponization in the Semiconductor Supply Chain International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-20 Guillaume Beaumier, Madison Cartwright
How do states’ positions across multiple and interconnected economic networks affect their power? The Weaponized Interdependence (WI) scholarship emphasizes that states centrally located in global economic networks have access to new sources of coercion. In this paper, we look at how their positions across multiple networks interact with each other to create new opportunities and vulnerabilities. We
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Military Exercises and Network Effects International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Kevin Galambos
Between 1980 and 2016, the percentage of states that partnered in a multinational military exercise (MME) increased twenty-fold. What explains this proliferation? Existing studies focus on the role of major powers and polarity but fail to explain exercises without great powers or the continuous growth of MME participation. I conceptualize patterns of exercises among all members of the international
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Super-Networks Shaping International Agreements: Comparing the Climate Change and Nuclear Weapons Arenas International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-15 Andrea Schapper, Megan Dee
While research on transnational advocacy networks (TANs) is well established in international relations, knowledge gaps remain concerning TAN collaboration across policy fields. To address this gap, this article highlights how super-networks (networks above individual TANs) emerge across issue areas and explores the tactics utilized to achieve their objectives and shape international agreements. We
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Bureaucracy and Cyber Coercion International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2024-01-15 Heidi Demarest, Tyler Jost, Robert Schub
States are increasingly incorporating militarized cyber technologies, or cyber weapons, into their defense arsenals, but there is vigorous debate about their coercive utility. Existing scholarship often adjudicates the debate by parsing technical differences between cyber and conventional weapons. This technical approach overlooks a critical consideration: bureaucrats who inform state assessments may
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Theorizing Decision-Making in International Bureaucracies: UN Peacekeeping Operations and Responses to Norm Violations International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-30 Kseniya Oksamytna, Oisín Tansey, Sarah von Billerbeck, Birte Julia Gippert
Many international organizations (IOs) provide assistance to governments through country offices or peacekeeping operations. Sometimes, government authorities in countries receiving IO services violate norms that underpin the IO’s engagement. IO officials must then choose between confrontational and conciliatory responses. These responses are located on a spectrum that ranges from a firm and public
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Theorizing Infrastructures in Global Politics International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-29 Christian Bueger, Tobias Liebetrau, Jan Stockbruegger
A growing wave of studies in international relations is interested in “infrastructure.” Pipelines, ports, financial transaction arrangements, and other large technical systems increasingly occupy the minds of international theorists. This theory note provides direction to the debate by offering an important clarification of the concept of infrastructure and how it is theorized. Scholars have very different
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Domination for the Rest? Creating and Contesting Secondary State-Led International Hierarchies International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-21 Alexander M Hynd, Daniel Connolly
Existing literature on international hierarchies has focused on great powers, hitherto overlooking those hierarchies led by secondary states. Secondary states lack the capabilities and geostrategic reach of their great power counterparts but nevertheless seek to create subordinate relationships in their immediate regions. We argue that in doing so secondary states draw on strategic toolkits that involve
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What Counts as Transitional Justice Scholarship? Citational Recognition and Disciplinary Hierarchies in Theory and Practice International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-21 Maja Davidović, Catherine Turner
Since its emergence as a field of scholarship and practice, transitional justice has coalesced around a set of mechanisms to deal with a legacy of violence. The “pull” toward mechanisms, institutions, and structures as a means of delivering justice has led to certain kinds of knowledge being recognized as “transitional justice research” in the mainstream. Drawing on the theory of epistemic positioning
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The Key Role of Political Prisoners in Transcending Protracted Conflicts International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-11 Tomer Schorr-Liebfeld, Avraham Sela
Resolving protracted, asymmetric, and ethno-national conflicts is a notoriously problematic process, and only a handful of such attempts have ended in success. This paper is the first comparative study examining the relevance of “politically motivated violent offenders” (PMVOs) in propelling the shift from a long and bloody armed struggle to a negotiated agreement; indeed, they play an indispensable
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Diplomatic Gender Patterns and Symbolic Status Signaling: Introducing the GenDip Dataset on Gender and Diplomatic Representation International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-10 Birgitta Niklasson, Ann E Towns
This research note introduces a new dyadic dataset on gender and diplomatic representation and shows its potential to address questions about international status, gender patterns in international politics, and more. The GenDip dataset includes the names and gender classification of all bilateral ambassadors heading embassies 1968–2019 (74,549), structured as dyad/decade for 1968–1998 and dyad/lustrum
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The Transnational Social Contract in the Global South International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-07 Kamal Sadiq, Gerasimos Tsourapas
How does labor emigration affect state–society relations across postcolonial states? We argue that the opportunity to pursue employment abroad alters a fundamental component of postcolonial states—the post-independence social contract. Such states’ inability to sustain post-independence levels of welfare provision first leads to the development of “emigration management institutions,” which seek to
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New Democracies and Commitment to Human Rights Treaties International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-11-06 Xinyuan Dai, Alexandros Tokhi
One of the most influential arguments suggests that new democracies are more inclined than others to commit to international human rights treaties. This paper examines whether new democracies are more likely to commit not only to the basic, but also to the more demanding and constraining treaties. We argue that despite the strategic utility of costly commitments, new democracies are often unwilling
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When the Rich Get Richer: Class, Globalization, and the Sociotropic Determinants of Populism International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-10-23 Kathleen E Powers, Brian C Rathbun
Globalization is frequently linked to populism in advanced industrial societies, yet scholars have found little evidence for a direct connection between citizens’ personal economic fortunes and populist beliefs. We draw on the sociotropic tradition to argue that beliefs about how the global economy differently affects groups in society link globalization to populism and its component elements—anti-elitism
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Protection for Hire: Cooperation through Regional Organizations International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Christina Cottiero
There is growing evidence that leaders cooperate through regional intergovernmental organizations (RIOs) to address domestic security challenges. What sustains this collaboration? I present a theory of regional cooperation driven by mutual interest in stability and protection for heads of state. RIOs support the development of rules and norms around contributing to regional security and can legitimize
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Sovereignty Intrusion: Populism and Attitudes toward the International Monetary Fund International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-10-14 Sam Handlin, Ayse Kaya, Hakan Gunaydin
The global populist backlash is considered threatening to the multilateral order, but its impact on individual attitudes toward international organizations, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is understudied. We bridge insights from research on the IMF and populism to develop a theoretical framework centered on three propositions. We argue that populist individuals should be more prone to
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Defaulting Differently: The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt Restructuring Negotiations International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-10-14 Lauren L Ferry
Negotiations to restructure sovereign debt are protracted affairs, and their outcomes, known as “haircuts,” range from 0 to 80 percent creditor losses. Haircuts impact states’ ability to borrow, cost of borrowing, and economic recovery; they also redistribute income—between states and creditors and between domestic interest groups. I conceptualize the interaction between governments and private creditors
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Civil War Mediation and the Conflict Environment: Does Regional Instability Influence the Onset of Mediation? International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-10-12 Lindsay Reid, Kelly M Kadera, Mark J C Crescenzi
Hostile regional environments can spur civil war at home. Do they also affect mediation in a state’s ongoing civil war? We hypothesize they do, but in ways that produce competing effects: Third parties hesitate to offer mediation in a conflictual environment, but hostile environments also make disputants more amenable to mediation. We test these diverging expectations using a measure of conflict environments
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Demand for Statehood: The Case of Native Military Recruitment in World War II International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-09-30 Joowon Yi
This paper examines how the demand for independence appeared in the era of Decolonization. I argue that nationalist movements were more likely to emerge in places where the colonial authorities recruited the native population in World War II. The theory highlights the role of war veterans in creating the demand for independence and in facilitating it through organized collective action. Drawing on
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Fair-Weather Abusers? Civil War Dynamics and the Onset of State-Sponsored Violence International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-09-23 Eric Keels, J Michael Greig
Despite decades of rigorous research on the use of government-sponsored violence in armed conflicts, there remains significant uncertainty as to when and where leaders choose to target civilians in war. We argue that the variation in the use of state repression is explained in part by how soldiers perceive battlefield gains by rebel forces. Specifically, while strong opposition forces are often a necessary
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Interactive Leader Psychology and the Ebb and Flow of Interstate Rivalry International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-09-13 Dennis M Foster, Jonathan W Keller
A great deal of scholarship links leaders’ psychological traits to their monadic tendency to use force abroad, but virtually no work considers how the interaction of leadership psychology influences the systematic likelihood of dyadic interstate conflict. We develop and test several competing explanations of how the interactive conceptual complexity of leaders—a psychological trait that consistently
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Human Shields and the Gulf War International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-09-06 Alexander de la Paz
From late August to early December 1990, Iraq held hundreds of Western and Japanese civilians at strategic sites as “human shields” against the Gulf War coalition. While there is a consensus that these foreign nationals would have influenced the coalition’s offensive had they not been released before the onset of hostilities, their impact remains poorly understood. This note draws on newly available
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Food Insecurity and Unrest Participation: Evidence from Johannesburg, South Africa International Studies Quarterly (IF 2.799) Pub Date : 2023-09-05 Ida Rudolfsen
This study assesses the claim that food insecurity leads to participation in unrest. I argue that insecure access to food can provide a motivational force to engage in urban unrest. But individuals must also have the capacity to partake in collective action, and acute food insecurity may undermine mobilization potential. Further, food insecurity is a mundane and widespread grievance often seen as an