Recognising Normative State Action in International Life

2022

Teoria Polityki

Self Cite

It seems that the Indo-Pacific label has been deployed by India to validate its great power aspirations. Such operationalization of strategic region-building acknowledges that the positioning of any international actor emerges as a power in context –it is not entirely an intrinsic property of an actor, but depends on the kind of interactions it has in specific (temporal and spatial) contexts. This condition is one of the key sources of the awkwardness of India’s great power. It reflects simultaneously (i) the contested nature of India’s standing –jostling between an aspiring great power, a regional South Asian hegemon, and a begrudging middle power; and (ii) the neglect of Indian aspirations (and self-perception) of great civilizational state. The paper examines these dynamics by, firstly, deploying a discursive study on foreign policy making, whose framework then provides the analytical backstop to the assessment of Indian foreign policy making in the Indo-Pacific region. As such, the concluding section of the paper suggests that the case of India confirms the assumption that it is the complex interactions between contestation and neglect that frames the awkward status of power on the world stage.

Section: India -An Asian Middle Power or An Indo-pacific Great Power?mentioning

confidence: 99%

India’s Indo-Pacific Gambit: An Awkward Power Striving for Status

2022

Teoria Polityki

Self Cite

“…In this setting, the analysis of localization offers an inclusive and interdisciplinary approach for process tracing the uses of an external other in media narratives (Kavalski, 2007c). It also needs to be noted at the outset that CEE media interest in China is far less significant than that in other external actors -such as the EU, Russia, or the United States for instance (Jakubowicz & Sukosd, 2018;Kavalski, 2017a). The number of CEE media accounts of interactions with either Brussels, Moscow, or Washington in the first three quarters of any year tends to be larger than the overall accounts of China in the pre-pandemic decade (Splichal, 2019).…”

Section: Localizing Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

The end of China’s romance with Central and Eastern Europe

2021

Global Media and China

Self Cite

The 2016 Mandopop hit ‘Prague square’ ushered in a new romance for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in China. Such infatuation has resonated not only in popular culture, but was mirrored in China’s newfound boldness on the international stage. Drawing on CEE media accounts, the article demonstrates that China’s romance with the CEE countries was never reciprocated. In fact, the CEE region might present a significant outlier in that media accounts of China have been consistently negative in the decade preceding the Covid-19 pandemic. In other words, the pandemic merely accelerated trends that were already set in motion prior to 2020. In this respect, CEE media accounts of both China and the Covid-19 pandemic reveal an interesting ‘localization of the other’. As such, China has been used to validate specific domestic positions of different political formations. Perceptions of China (what it is assumed to stands for) have been deployed domestically in the CEE region to justify particular visions of the state and its international identity.

“…For instance, the cases of both the Prague City Council severing ties with Beijing and the Taiwanese trip of the Czech Senate president reflect domestic political rifts rather than any specific actions of China. In both cases, representatives of the opposition have opted for “China bashing” in order to score electoral points at the expense of the current Czech government, which has been presented as cosying up to Beijing (Kavalski 2017). 6 The inference is that bonhomie with China is synonymous with graft and a tilt toward illiberal politics.…”

Section: Localizing China In Ceementioning

confidence: 99%

Quo Vadis Cooperation Between China and Eastern Europe in the Era of COVID‐19?

2021

World Affairs

Self Cite

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) used to be quite buoyant about benefiting from China’s economic largesse. A little over a year ago, China’s cooperation with the region was brandished as a real feather in China’s foreign policy cap. Today, however, the China-CEE cooperation appears to be done with. This development has led many to question whether the China-CEE cooperation has become a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. The answer provided here is: no, not at all! Most CEE states have been mulling a freeze in their participation for quite some time. In this respect, the pandemic has only accelerated the social distancing of CEE countries from China. The study suggests that the unrequited romance of China with the CEE region has important implications both for the country’s public diplomacy and the post-pandemic trajectories of the Belt and Road Initiative.