Power and Recognition

What if the quest for recognition, not power, rank or security, were the overriding objective of foreign policies? What if practices of recognition both empower and yet subjugate by fixing identities and reproducing the terms upon which agents become recognisable in the first place? Can recognition as encounter become the diplomatic task of, and condition for, a post-colonial international order?

In this project that exposes this tension between power and recognition, recognition will be analysed in three theoretical contexts, addressing its role within (1) more relationalist ontologies, (2) a social and theory of (symbolic) action that goes beyond utlitarianism and communicative rationality, and (3) as a type of international practice.

Related publications

S.G., “Vision of itself” in Foreign Policy Analysis: From the role of ideas to identity and recognition“, Teoria Polityki, vol. 6 (September 2022): 33-57 (Open access, DOI: 10.4467/25440845TP.22.001.16001).
S.G., "Relationalism(s) Unpacked: Engaging Yaqing Qin’s Theory of World Politics." The Chinese Journal of International Politics 17, 2 (2024): 187-205 (Open access, DOI: 10.1093/cjip/poae010).
S.G., "Domination and Recognition", in Stefano Guzzini, Sam Okoth Opondo and Karen Smith, ‘Forum on Recognition in Foreign Policy (Analysis) and (The Study of) Diplomacy’, Contexto Internacional 46, 2 (2024), forthcoming.
S.G. & Jimmy Casas Klausen, "Power in International Political Sociology", in Stacey Goddard, George Lawson, Ole Jacob Sending, eds, Oxford Handbook in International Political Sociology (Oxford: Oxford University Press), forthcoming.

Prudence in World Politics

The idea of prudence in world politics has had something of a resurgence among scholars of classical realism, constructivism, and philosophical pragmatism. The maxim of prudence appears as an important corrective in times of rising unilateralism and nationalism in foreign policy, but also as a potentially indispensable, because dialogical, tool when the rules of international society may need to be rewritten, including non-Western understandings and norms.

Yet, ‘prudence’ is easier invoked than defined or understood. This is not only due to terminological ambivalence, but to the quite diverse places it holds in our understanding of world politics. First, it does not follow the canon of knowledge in the social sciences, since it derives from an attempt to valorize practical knowledge. We see it referred to in the recent revival of phronesis, pragmatism, and the age-old normative question of the nature of (wise) politics. Second, it is a historically constituted maxim. Its evolution needs to be understood as a component of the ongoing socialization in world diplomatic culture and the very change of that culture in world politics. This socialization is informed by the ‘lessons’ of history, which are always contestable: which lessons and whose history? As such, the resurgence of prudence speaks to the recent revival of a different kind of diplomatic history (in practice theory), as well as the theoretical and empirical study of collective memory in world affairs. Finally, there have been attempts to delineate prudence (sometimes in the guise of ‘self-restraint’) as an explanatory factor in foreign policy analysis and the evolution of the international order. The project explores the different meanings and performances of the concept, as well as its practice.

The research is led by J. Samuel Barkin (UMass Boston) and Stefano Guzzini (EUI). Collaborators include Alexander Astrov (CEU), Chris Brown (LSE emerit.), Friedrich Kratochwil (EUI emerit.) Manali Kumar (St. Gallen), Daniel Levine (University of Alabama), Laura Sjoberg (Royal Holloway, London), Tobias Wille (Frankfurt), Anna Wojciuk (Warsaw) and Marta Tomczak (Polish Academy of Sciences).

Related publications

S.G., "Saving Realist Prudence", in J. Samuel Barkin, ed., The Social Construction of State Power: Applying Realist Constructivism (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2020), pp. 217-232 (JSTOR Access).
Barkin,J. Samuel & Stefano Guzzini, eds, "Prudence in World Politics", forthcoming.

Concept Analysis

Concepts are phenomena of social reality and the building blocks of all our knowledge. Concept analysis traditionally covers three dimensions: what does a concept mean? What does it do? And how has it come to mean and do what it does? And yet, concept analysis is also a major instrument for theory-development. It can be used to probe assumptions in political and normative theory, contextualise (provincialise) ideal-types in empirical theorisations and de-naturalise performatives in political practice.

Related publications

S.G., "Power in World Politics" in William Thompson, ed., Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Published: 20 April 2022 (Open access).
Felix Berenskötter & S.G., "Contested Essential Concepts in IR", in Cameron Thies, ed., Handbook of International Relations (Cheltenham, UK et al.: Edward Elgar Publ.), forthcoming.

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