International Affairs最新文献_第2页

The Russian factor: emotions, narratives and reshaping China's norms in international conflicts 俄罗斯因素：情感、叙事与重塑中国在国际冲突中的准则

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae126

Xiaoyu Lu, Tinghao Zhang

{"title":"The Russian factor: emotions, narratives and reshaping China's norms in international conflicts","authors":"Xiaoyu Lu, Tinghao Zhang","doi":"10.1093/ia/iiae126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae126","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 How did Russia, despite being in a weaker position, exercise a continuous and resilient influence on China's normative approach to international conflicts from Syria to Ukraine? This article proposes a theoretical framework that connects the affective turn and norm studies in International Relations. It conceptualizes emotions as the affective infrastructure of norm scripts: shared political feelings create resonance, based on which persuasive narratives work to maintain solidarity and institutionalize normative changes. Drawing on primary Russian and Chinese resources and using process tracing to identify critical junctures in the partnership and institutional channels for Russian campaigns, this article demonstrates how China's alignment with Russia is not solely based on geopolitical interests or constructed identities but rather a result of feelings of isolation and marginalization that firstly resonated with and then exploited by Russian actors. Furthermore, this article identifies three types of persuasive narratives used to construct continuity, analogy and identification in consolidating emotional resonance around the threat of a homogenous West and inducing normative convergence. This drives China to adopt policies in conflict with national interests and norms on sovereignty and territorial integrity that trigger a reflective assessment of the Russian influence, while underlining the growing importance of emotion diplomacy.","PeriodicalId":48162,"journal":{"name":"International Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141716550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

A stranger in your own city: travels in the Middle East's long war 自己城市里的陌生人：在中东的长期战争中旅行

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae166

James Denselow

引用次数: 0

Decolonisation in the age of globalisation: Britain, China, and Hong Kong, 1979–89 全球化时代的非殖民化：英国、中国和香港，1979-1989 年

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae144

Tim Summers

引用次数: 0

Xerox soldiers, YouTube commanders and Twitter brigades: information warfare in eastern Congo 施乐士兵、YouTube 指挥官和 Twitter 旅：刚果东部的信息战

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae130

Christoph N Vogel, Josaphat Musamba

{"title":"Xerox soldiers, YouTube commanders and Twitter brigades: information warfare in eastern Congo","authors":"Christoph N Vogel, Josaphat Musamba","doi":"10.1093/ia/iiae130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae130","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Researching contemporary warfare requires attention to digital connectivity in contexts of crisis and conflict. This article traces the evolution of information warfare with a focus on the digitization, democratization and polarization of conflict-related communication and discourse. We argue that information warfare amplifies with the advent of social media—multiplying the scales for the conduct of hostilities, reducing distance and duration, and democratizing participation—notably in Africa, a continent often considered a trailblazer of digital innovation. Orthodox scholarship, however, tends to focus disproportionately on cases relevant to the global North. Examples include the global ‘war on terror’ or the Russian war against Ukraine. Investigating protracted violent conflict in the global South instead, our analysis fills an important gap in this literature. Through the prism of the African Great Lakes region, the world's deadliest contemporary war zone, we leverage a counterintuitive perspective of a conflict considered backwards in mainstream analysis. Drawing from long-term field research and digital ethnography, we propose the notion of ‘reciprocal warscapes’, where not only do battlefield events influence the underlying politics of conflict but where, reciprocally, digital warfare increasingly shapes the conduct of war itself.","PeriodicalId":48162,"journal":{"name":"International Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141692147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The politicization of diplomacy: a comparative study of ambassador appointments 外交政治化：大使任命比较研究

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae116

Birgitta Niklasson, Katarzyna Jezierska

{"title":"The politicization of diplomacy: a comparative study of ambassador appointments","authors":"Birgitta Niklasson, Katarzyna Jezierska","doi":"10.1093/ia/iiae116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae116","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A politicization of diplomacy weakens the professionalism of the foreign service and arguably endangers the external relations of states. Yet, this phenomenon has largely escaped scholarly scrutiny. Public administration research on politicization usually overlooks the foreign service, whereas diplomacy scholars have focused almost exclusively on the United States. Our exploratory study of ambassador appointments compares the levels and modes of politicization (through politically connected professionals, or political appointees) of 669 ambassadors in 2019, across seven countries and three administrative traditions. The analysis is guided by three expectations: 1) countries that are more politicized overall appoint more non-career ambassadors; 2) patronage recruitment of political appointees focuses on low-hardship postings; and 3) politically connected professionals are used to control politically important foreign missions. We find that states politicize their foreign services to a varied degree and in different ways. Appointing politically connected professionals instead of political appointees is the most common way of politicization among our cases. In this regard, the US is an outlier, which also points to the need of studying politicization of diplomacy comparatively. This article thus makes an important contribution by setting the agenda for future research on this hitherto underexplored topic.","PeriodicalId":48162,"journal":{"name":"International Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141700238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Nonhuman humanitarians: animal interventions in global politics 非人类人道主义者：全球政治中的动物干预

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae159

Rowan Wilkinson

引用次数: 1

Platform kinship and the reshaping of political order in the Somali territories 平台亲属关系与索马里领土政治秩序的重塑

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae134

Jethro Norman

{"title":"Platform kinship and the reshaping of political order in the Somali territories","authors":"Jethro Norman","doi":"10.1093/ia/iiae134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae134","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Numerous studies show that digital technologies facilitate diaspora engagement in homeland affairs. However, communities in home countries also adapt digital platforms to harness diasporic support and drive socio-political change. Despite a rich literature on ‘digital kinship’, there remains a limited understanding of kinship's broader political and developmental impact, especially in (post)conflict regions. This article draws on fieldwork in the Somali territories to argue that a distinctive model of governance, platform kinship, is emerging as an alternative to existing state and international development programmes. Focusing on WhatsApp, it highlights how the platform's specific features are adapted to Somali segmentary clan structures, enabling kinship groups to bridge digital divides, preserve oral traditions and uphold egalitarian principles. Platform kinship has state-like effects. Through an ecosystem of WhatsApp groups, geographically dispersed kin mediate disputes, coordinate development projects, fund political campaigns, and respond to conflicts and crises. However, it also empowers new actors, including youth, politicians and business elites, while marginalizing elders. Furthermore, because platform kinship strengthens the clan as the central political unit, it can deepen divisions between kinship groups and undermine state-building projects and conceptions of national identity. This has important implications for policy-makers and academics working on digital governance, development and peacebuilding.","PeriodicalId":48162,"journal":{"name":"International Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141707177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The crisis in the palm of our hand 危机就在我们手中

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae128

Jethro Norman, Matthew Ford, S. Cold-Ravnkilde

{"title":"The crisis in the palm of our hand","authors":"Jethro Norman, Matthew Ford, S. Cold-Ravnkilde","doi":"10.1093/ia/iiae128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae128","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The rapid global proliferation of smartphones and their associated information infrastructures has been a defining feature of the past decade's global crises. Yet, while the digital is now a topic of keen interest for scholars working on virtually everything that constitutes the international, the smartphone as an object of study in and of itself has been largely elusive. Moreover, emerging studies of contemporary crisis, such as ‘polycrisis’, often downplay the role of the digital. How can we conceptualize the ambiguity and ubiquity of the smartphone, as it impacts diverse fields of human action, from war to humanitarianism to democracy? And how can we empirically study this phenomenon and its distributed effects? We contend that smartphones are both embedded in and embed global crises. We conceptualize this as ‘global crisis ecologies’: new spaces that are not simply geographical, or easily framed in terms of North/South divisions, and that include the informational infrastructures that mediate the way crisis is apprehended. This framing helps us understand how multiple civilian, state and non-state actors at different societal levels participate in crises through everyday smartphone use. It foregrounds how the speed, audio-visual capabilities and inherent scalability of smartphones shape how crises are perceived and managed.","PeriodicalId":48162,"journal":{"name":"International Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141714598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Smartphones and video as security articulation infrastructures: evidencing Black Lives Matter 智能手机和视频作为安全衔接基础设施：证明黑人生命的重要性

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae170

Rune Saugmann Andersen

{"title":"Smartphones and video as security articulation infrastructures: evidencing Black Lives Matter","authors":"Rune Saugmann Andersen","doi":"10.1093/ia/iiae170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae170","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Smartphone videos can co-constitute security reality. As smartphones spread in the 2010s, videos of deadly police violence against Black United States citizens became common, and over time these videos co-constituted anti-Black police violence as a security issue, which found its expression as Black Lives Matter (BLM). This article questions the role that smartphones and video play for BLM, and argues that security theory needs a better grasp of security articulation. Mapping the mediation of BLM's first decade, the article documents that smartphones are security articulation infrastructures as bystanders routinely rely on smartphone video to articulate security. The epistemic authority of video enables BLM videos to act as infrastructural gateways connecting established mass media to new vernacular media. Video mediation denies recognized figures of authority interpretive monopoly and enables non-elites to participate in constituting security reality, creating a room for non-elite Black Americans' articulation of insecurity. The article shows that still images and videos are different in this respect, and calls for security theory to take articulation formats and infrastructures seriously. When leaving ‘communication’ to other disciplines or enacting government responses as constitutive of (visual) security, scholarship risks overlooking the epistemic racism limiting security articulation in ‘old’ mass media, and risks making security theory complicit in epistemically silencing the voices of common, marginalized and racialized people.","PeriodicalId":48162,"journal":{"name":"International Affairs","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141704119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Using force to protect civilians: successes and failures of United Nations peace operations in Africa 使用武力保护平民：联合国非洲和平行动的成功与失败

IF 3.9 1区社会学

International Affairs Pub Date : 2024-07-01 DOI: 10.1093/ia/iiae160

I. Buba

引用次数: 1