Synopses & Reviews
Can a society's fear of foreigners engender xenophobic foreign policy?This is a book about conflicts and fears: how domestic reasons are drawing countries in Europe into international events. There has been much research into why the U.S. and U.K. militaries intervened in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones. But what explains France's newfound international activism, which is taking its military to Libya, Mali and deeper into Africa? Why has Poland become deeply engaged in Ukraine's politics? Why is Sweden, which has not fought a war since 1814, concerned with the fierce internal wars in Iraq and Syria? Can these actions be explained as countries simply protecting their national interests, or has domestic xenophobia also be playing a part?
In Fear and the Making of Foreign Policy, Raymond Taras explains the causal mechanisms propelling these three EU states to become engaged in outside conflicts and tells the story of when and why xenophobia at home is converted into xenophobia abroad.
Synopsis
This is a book about conflicts and fears: how domestic reasons are drawing countries in Europe into international events. Raymond Taras explains why France, Poland and Sweden have become engaged in outside conflicts and tells the story of when and why xenophobia at home is converted into xenophobia abroad.
Synopsis
This is a book about conflicts and fears: how domestic reasons are drawing countries in Europe into international events. There has been much research into why the U.S. and U.K. militaries intervened in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones. But what explains France's newfound international activism, which is taking its military to Libya, Mali and deeper into Africa? Why has Poland become deeply engaged in Ukraine's politics? Why is Sweden, which has not fought a war since 1814, concerned with the fierce internal wars in Iraq and Syria? Can these actions be explained as countries simply protecting their national interests, or could domestic xenophobia also be playing a part? In 'Fear and the Making of Foreign Policy', Raymond Taras explains the causal mechanisms propelling these three EU states to become engaged in outside conflicts and tells the story of when and why xenophobia at home is converted into xenophobia abroad.
Synopsis
Tells the story of when and why xenophobia at home becomes converted into xenophobia abroadHow attentive are political leaders to public opinion on issues involving international politics? The conventional wisdom is that the public does not influence foreign policy. But when shifts in public opinion seem to produce corresponding changes in foreign policy, this is brought into question. It would be surprising if the pathology of xenophobia - literally 'a fear of foreigners' - had no effect on a country's foreign policy.
This book is about the politics of fear: a bottom-up mobilisation of swathes of society against a political establishment championing diversity. Evidence that such populist politics of fear does more than force political leaders to reconsider liberal immigration policy is to be found in changes in foreign policy. In specific circumstances, societal fears can make leaders pursue hostile foreign policy towards perceived antipathetic nations.
About the Author
Raymond Taras is Professor of Political Science at Tulane University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements1. Fear in contemporary politics: citizens, strangers, elites
Meditation on fear
Fear across history
Cosmic and existential fears
Fear in philosophy
Ethics and fears
Eurocentrism
Fear from above, fear from below
Case studies
Conclusions
2. Reconnecting culture with foreign policy
Fear, culture, and foreign policy
Fear and domestic structures
Distinguishing domestic factors from the foreign
The cultural turn in foreign policy studies
Securitizing immigration
Fears and international fractiousness: Libya and Ukraine
Conclusions
3. Reflections on designing research for the study of fear and foreign policy
Building theories
Telling causal stories
Conducting interpretive research
Concepts and consequences
4. France: Muslim migrants, foreign policy consequences
Defining Republican identity
The Muslim fact in France
The securitization dilemma
Front National and fear
La politique arabe
Sarkozy: l'homme de rupture ou non-rupture?
Hollande: the Maghreb, Sahel, and beyond
Conclusions
5. Poland's Fixation with Russia: Fear or Reason?
Civilizational fears?
Russo-hypopsia
Instrumentalizing history
Threat perceptions
Foreign policy 1997-2005
Fears in the Kaczy?ski interregnum: 2005-7
Foreign policy after 2007
Conflict over Ukraine: 2013-14
Conclusions
6. Sweden: the limits of humanitarianism at home and abroad
Stereotypes and attitudes
Strangers in Sweden
Fears of foreigners after 2006
Foreign policy of the conservative alliance
Post-neutrality, NATO, and security
Liberal internationalism
Conclusions
7. Summing up
The big picture
Causal stories: lessons learned
Fear in the U.S.A.
Select bibliography
Index