Pub Date : 2022-08-01DOI: 10.1177/03043754221109705
Robert Flahive
What does it mean for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) building to be designed through modernist architecture principles on land acquired through settler colonialism? In 1947, construction began on the United Nations Headquarters (UNHQ) in Manhattan, a name derived from Manna-hata, a site within Lenapehoking, the homeland of Indigenous Lenape peoples violently displaced by waves of Dutch, British, and American settlers starting in the 17th century. This paper analyzes the structural dynamics that is in the literal foundations of the United Nations Headquarters, the post-World War II (WWII) worldmaking project intended to safeguard international order. By marshaling the history of Lenapehoking and analyzing the design principles informing the UNGA building, this paper narrows the claim that the post-WWII worldmaking project was contingent upon settler colonialism. Through a capacious reading of settler colonial theory, architectural history, and International Relations (IR), this paper aims to open up conversations on the ongoing structural and spatial dynamics embedded in the foundations of the UNGA building that are constitutive of the post-WWII international order.
{"title":"Building the United Nations Headquarters as Worldmaking? Settler Colonialism, Modernist Architecture, and the Material Infrastructure for the Post-World WarII Order","authors":"Robert Flahive","doi":"10.1177/03043754221109705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221109705","url":null,"abstract":"What does it mean for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) building to be designed through modernist architecture principles on land acquired through settler colonialism? In 1947, construction began on the United Nations Headquarters (UNHQ) in Manhattan, a name derived from Manna-hata, a site within Lenapehoking, the homeland of Indigenous Lenape peoples violently displaced by waves of Dutch, British, and American settlers starting in the 17th century. This paper analyzes the structural dynamics that is in the literal foundations of the United Nations Headquarters, the post-World War II (WWII) worldmaking project intended to safeguard international order. By marshaling the history of Lenapehoking and analyzing the design principles informing the UNGA building, this paper narrows the claim that the post-WWII worldmaking project was contingent upon settler colonialism. Through a capacious reading of settler colonial theory, architectural history, and International Relations (IR), this paper aims to open up conversations on the ongoing structural and spatial dynamics embedded in the foundations of the UNGA building that are constitutive of the post-WWII international order.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"156 - 169"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48476575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-28DOI: 10.1177/03043754221104553
M. Buice
This article observes developments in the construction of a controversial highway project through the protected TIPNIS territory in Bolivia’s Amazonian region between 2003 and 2021. The case study uses theories of political opportunity structure to guide the qualitative investigation about how indigenous groups confronted uncertain domestic and international institutional conditions. To confront divisive obstacles at home, activists ultimately developed strategies for operating within the formal rules and institutions while also creating their own “alternate” or informal sites of contestation at the international and domestic levels. This article ends with a discussion of the significance and power of these alternative institutions to influence policy.
{"title":"“Division at Home, Unity Abroad? The Impact of Local and International Dynamics on Political Opportunity Structure in the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure Highway Conflict”","authors":"M. Buice","doi":"10.1177/03043754221104553","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221104553","url":null,"abstract":"This article observes developments in the construction of a controversial highway project through the protected TIPNIS territory in Bolivia’s Amazonian region between 2003 and 2021. The case study uses theories of political opportunity structure to guide the qualitative investigation about how indigenous groups confronted uncertain domestic and international institutional conditions. To confront divisive obstacles at home, activists ultimately developed strategies for operating within the formal rules and institutions while also creating their own “alternate” or informal sites of contestation at the international and domestic levels. This article ends with a discussion of the significance and power of these alternative institutions to influence policy.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"135 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45153455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-25DOI: 10.1177/03043754221096511
Mustafa Kutlay, Ziya Öniş
The future of liberal democracy appears to be uncertain. This article develops a holistic approach to examine the prospects of liberal democracy by focusing on how three main regime types—that is, “established democratic regimes,” “hybrid regimes,” and “established authoritarian regimes”—interact with each other. We argue structural global political economy trends, which largely created the current authoritarian populist tide, remain strong despite signs of democratic renewal emerged with the recent new green Keynesian turn in established Western democracies, a more unified transatlantic response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and growing political-economic fragility of key hybrid regimes ruled by authoritarian populist leaders. Also, the resilience of various types of autocracies which co-exist and reinforce one another through economic linkages and political coalitions should not be underestimated, especially demonstrative effects of the Russia–China partnership. Both democratic and authoritarian forms of capitalism face serious problems of income and wealth inequality, raising challenges over “performance legitimacy” in both regime types. In this context, the performance and political-economic orientation of hybrid regimes will have a crucial bearing on the fortunes of liberal democracy on a global scale.
{"title":"Liberal Democracy on the Edge? Anxieties in a Shifting Global (dis)order","authors":"Mustafa Kutlay, Ziya Öniş","doi":"10.1177/03043754221096511","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221096511","url":null,"abstract":"The future of liberal democracy appears to be uncertain. This article develops a holistic approach to examine the prospects of liberal democracy by focusing on how three main regime types—that is, “established democratic regimes,” “hybrid regimes,” and “established authoritarian regimes”—interact with each other. We argue structural global political economy trends, which largely created the current authoritarian populist tide, remain strong despite signs of democratic renewal emerged with the recent new green Keynesian turn in established Western democracies, a more unified transatlantic response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and growing political-economic fragility of key hybrid regimes ruled by authoritarian populist leaders. Also, the resilience of various types of autocracies which co-exist and reinforce one another through economic linkages and political coalitions should not be underestimated, especially demonstrative effects of the Russia–China partnership. Both democratic and authoritarian forms of capitalism face serious problems of income and wealth inequality, raising challenges over “performance legitimacy” in both regime types. In this context, the performance and political-economic orientation of hybrid regimes will have a crucial bearing on the fortunes of liberal democracy on a global scale.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"48 1","pages":"20 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49369595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-19DOI: 10.1177/03043754221086170
A. Bilgiç, Jordan Pilcher
Status-seeking practices of some states from the Global South have increasingly been studied in the status literature in International Relations. The existing debates, whilst developing significant advances recently, still fail to account for and theorise both status anxieties of postcolonial states and the intrinsic relation between them and existential anxieties. This article will address this gap through utilising an ontological security perspective on status-seeking. By focusing on subjectivities (not solely on identities as conventionally done in the status literature) and introducing subject production to the process of status-seeking, this article conceptualises status in relation to identity narratives of the subject to achieve ‘wholeness’ in hierarchical social orders. This novel post-structuralist understanding of status and status-seeking through the introduction of a Lacanian theorisation of ontological security offers an alternative perspective to approaches in status debates to understand status anxieties of postcolonial states better. The conceptual discussion will be illustrated through demonstrating Turkey’s status anxiety in relation to its paid-off debt to International Monetary Fund.
{"title":"Desires, Fantasies and Hierarchies: Postcolonial Status Anxiety through Ontological Security","authors":"A. Bilgiç, Jordan Pilcher","doi":"10.1177/03043754221086170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221086170","url":null,"abstract":"Status-seeking practices of some states from the Global South have increasingly been studied in the status literature in International Relations. The existing debates, whilst developing significant advances recently, still fail to account for and theorise both status anxieties of postcolonial states and the intrinsic relation between them and existential anxieties. This article will address this gap through utilising an ontological security perspective on status-seeking. By focusing on subjectivities (not solely on identities as conventionally done in the status literature) and introducing subject production to the process of status-seeking, this article conceptualises status in relation to identity narratives of the subject to achieve ‘wholeness’ in hierarchical social orders. This novel post-structuralist understanding of status and status-seeking through the introduction of a Lacanian theorisation of ontological security offers an alternative perspective to approaches in status debates to understand status anxieties of postcolonial states better. The conceptual discussion will be illustrated through demonstrating Turkey’s status anxiety in relation to its paid-off debt to International Monetary Fund.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"48 1","pages":"3 - 19"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42002535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/03043754221094207
O. Pala
In Turkey’s State Crisis: Institutions, Reform and Conflict, Bülent Aras provides a comprehensive examination of the derailment and the eventual halt of the reform process initiated by the AKP in the early 2000s, pinpoints agents, structural elements, and hallmark developments that instigated a vicious cycle of political polarization, rising authoritarianism, deinstitutionalization in Turkey, altogether which intensified the current state crisis, and finally presents policy recommendations for reinstating a constructive reform process in all areas of the state. Based on his extensive experience working within the Turkish state apparatus and a rich blend of interviews with policymakers and state elites, the author provides a robust analysis of the historical, political, and geopolitical background of the ongoing state crisis. Chapter 1 analyzes the root causes and characteristics of the political crisis in Turkey from the perspectives of political and institutional reforms. The author states that the 2002–2010 period of the AKP governments functioned as a transition from tutelary democracy to hybrid governance, wherein the established nationalist-secular elements within the judiciary, bureaucracy, and the army collaborated to counter what they deemed as an assault on secular and Kemalist nature of the state. This was evident in their approach to sensitive issues such as the Kurdish question, rights of sub-identities, and the potential growth of the influence of Islam in Turkish politics. At this stage, Erdogan, and by extension the AKP elite, presented themselves as a powerless government with an emphasis on vulnerability vis-à-vis the establishment. The author argues that with strategic and tactical retooling as well as building alliances with the Gulenists and the other conservative constituencies, Erdogan was able to win the battle and advance the reform agenda. The author argues that such determination and political resolve fueled political and institutional reform at all levels of the state and singled out Turkey as a model country in the region. However, the author observes, this was to change throughout the next decade (2010–2020), a period characterized by authoritarian drift, populism, and deinstitutionalization. Faced with an array of adverse developments such as the Mavi Marmara incident, graft probes, growing Kurdish opposition, and finally the 2016 coup attempt perpetrated by FETO, the AKP changed its domestic alliances and opted for securitizing domestic as well as foreign politics.
{"title":"“Turkey’s State Crisis: Institutions, Reform, and Conflict” Book Review","authors":"O. Pala","doi":"10.1177/03043754221094207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221094207","url":null,"abstract":"In Turkey’s State Crisis: Institutions, Reform and Conflict, Bülent Aras provides a comprehensive examination of the derailment and the eventual halt of the reform process initiated by the AKP in the early 2000s, pinpoints agents, structural elements, and hallmark developments that instigated a vicious cycle of political polarization, rising authoritarianism, deinstitutionalization in Turkey, altogether which intensified the current state crisis, and finally presents policy recommendations for reinstating a constructive reform process in all areas of the state. Based on his extensive experience working within the Turkish state apparatus and a rich blend of interviews with policymakers and state elites, the author provides a robust analysis of the historical, political, and geopolitical background of the ongoing state crisis. Chapter 1 analyzes the root causes and characteristics of the political crisis in Turkey from the perspectives of political and institutional reforms. The author states that the 2002–2010 period of the AKP governments functioned as a transition from tutelary democracy to hybrid governance, wherein the established nationalist-secular elements within the judiciary, bureaucracy, and the army collaborated to counter what they deemed as an assault on secular and Kemalist nature of the state. This was evident in their approach to sensitive issues such as the Kurdish question, rights of sub-identities, and the potential growth of the influence of Islam in Turkish politics. At this stage, Erdogan, and by extension the AKP elite, presented themselves as a powerless government with an emphasis on vulnerability vis-à-vis the establishment. The author argues that with strategic and tactical retooling as well as building alliances with the Gulenists and the other conservative constituencies, Erdogan was able to win the battle and advance the reform agenda. The author argues that such determination and political resolve fueled political and institutional reform at all levels of the state and singled out Turkey as a model country in the region. However, the author observes, this was to change throughout the next decade (2010–2020), a period characterized by authoritarian drift, populism, and deinstitutionalization. Faced with an array of adverse developments such as the Mavi Marmara incident, graft probes, growing Kurdish opposition, and finally the 2016 coup attempt perpetrated by FETO, the AKP changed its domestic alliances and opted for securitizing domestic as well as foreign politics.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"128 - 131"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43623058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/03043754221095303
Ricardo Martinez
The article delves into the legitimation strategies enacted by city networks to raise their profile within the state-centric global governance architecture, contributing to the body of literature on the rising transnational dynamism of cities from the unexplored angle of legitimacy. It offers a case study on the largest of these networks, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). Building on interpretive policy analysis, the article identifies in the social construction of the frame of the localization of the UN global agendas a narrative that organizes the networked orchestration of the political agency of cities in the global urban age. Through a trans-scalar storyline that connects the local and global scale, UCLG frames the international consensus and common language underpinning the multilateral global agendas as a political opportunity to the benefit of its members.
{"title":"Framing the Localization of the Global Agendas: Orchestrating the Political Agency of Cities Within the Local-Global Nexus","authors":"Ricardo Martinez","doi":"10.1177/03043754221095303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221095303","url":null,"abstract":"The article delves into the legitimation strategies enacted by city networks to raise their profile within the state-centric global governance architecture, contributing to the body of literature on the rising transnational dynamism of cities from the unexplored angle of legitimacy. It offers a case study on the largest of these networks, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). Building on interpretive policy analysis, the article identifies in the social construction of the frame of the localization of the UN global agendas a narrative that organizes the networked orchestration of the political agency of cities in the global urban age. Through a trans-scalar storyline that connects the local and global scale, UCLG frames the international consensus and common language underpinning the multilateral global agendas as a political opportunity to the benefit of its members.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"100 - 114"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49402187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/03043754221095304
L. I. Oztig
Global South scholars have a lot to offer to the IR discipline in terms of new ways of producing knowledge. However, there is a huge difference between the Global North and the Global South in terms of knowledge production in the discipline. The US and Western Europe take the lead in IR research. There is also a vast inequality within the Global South. Some Global South regions are more integrated with the global IR community and more visible in IR journals, while other regions are almost invisible. This commentary provides a glimpse into the dynamics of knowledge production and discusses the ways in which the Global South could be more integrated to the global IR community.
{"title":"The Global North/South Inequalities in the IR Discipline: Some Reflections and Insights","authors":"L. I. Oztig","doi":"10.1177/03043754221095304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221095304","url":null,"abstract":"Global South scholars have a lot to offer to the IR discipline in terms of new ways of producing knowledge. However, there is a huge difference between the Global North and the Global South in terms of knowledge production in the discipline. The US and Western Europe take the lead in IR research. There is also a vast inequality within the Global South. Some Global South regions are more integrated with the global IR community and more visible in IR journals, while other regions are almost invisible. This commentary provides a glimpse into the dynamics of knowledge production and discusses the ways in which the Global South could be more integrated to the global IR community.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"123 - 127"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42367802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-30DOI: 10.1177/03043754221095306
A. Balcı, Tuncay Kardaş, Y. Turan, İsmail Ediz
When does the war party win in the decision-making process? Why does the peace party lose even if war is too risky? In this article, we show that certain balancing acts of the peace party might increase the confidence of the war party. We examine how the Ottoman Empire’s risky Crimean War decision and its war declaration against Russia on 4 October 1853 were shaped by internal debating through time, foreign penetration, and dynamic interplay between the Ottoman decision makers and a changing European strategic environment. The large literature on the Crimean War does not include a systematic analysis of the Ottoman origins of the Crimean War and the Ottoman war decision. We trace the Ottoman decision-making process in the fateful months of 1853 to establish the origins of the Crimean War. We empirically demonstrate the gradual formation of the Porte’s war decision by showing how the peace front stumbled upon war by inadvertently changing the decision structure in favor of the war party within a year.
{"title":"When Doves Feed Hawks: Ottoman War Decision and European Powers Towards the Crimean War","authors":"A. Balcı, Tuncay Kardaş, Y. Turan, İsmail Ediz","doi":"10.1177/03043754221095306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221095306","url":null,"abstract":"When does the war party win in the decision-making process? Why does the peace party lose even if war is too risky? In this article, we show that certain balancing acts of the peace party might increase the confidence of the war party. We examine how the Ottoman Empire’s risky Crimean War decision and its war declaration against Russia on 4 October 1853 were shaped by internal debating through time, foreign penetration, and dynamic interplay between the Ottoman decision makers and a changing European strategic environment. The large literature on the Crimean War does not include a systematic analysis of the Ottoman origins of the Crimean War and the Ottoman war decision. We trace the Ottoman decision-making process in the fateful months of 1853 to establish the origins of the Crimean War. We empirically demonstrate the gradual formation of the Porte’s war decision by showing how the peace front stumbled upon war by inadvertently changing the decision structure in favor of the war party within a year.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"67 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45584721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-14DOI: 10.1177/03043754221082899
Majed MH Al-Ansari, B. Aras, Nihat Mugurtay
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the foreign aid behavior of new donors on humanitarian cooperation? The non–OECD-DAC donors, such as Qatar, try to adapt to the new environment of development and humanitarian aid under COVID-19 pandemic. Qatar has successfully used public diplomacy to deal with regional geopolitical challenges. In this sense, the current situation presents an opportunity to Qatar for opening up to new geographies. This research analyzes Qatar’s foreign aid, utilizing a novel dataset on Qatar’s foreign aid interactions before and during the pandemic. These interactions show Qatar’s main recipients of foreign aid, with which country, income group and geography it interacts more. This dataset is essential to demonstrate Qatar’s priorities in humanitarian diplomacy as well. The pandemic makes this dataset even more interesting because it is worthwhile to investigate how a global health shock might affect the aid behavior of a new donor. Our analysis shows that Qatar has increased its foreign aid interactions compared to the pre-pandemic period. Qatar’s foreign aid regime is evolving according to income group and geographical differentiation, new communications with different recipients, revealing the country’s aspirations to be a global donor. However, Qatar’s foreign aid also has many limitations that negatively affect its global status. These factors are related to Qatar’s insistence on providing aid to specific regions and countries. Although Qatar has increased its humanitarian aid interaction with underdeveloped countries and disadvantaged geographies, the country privileges certain countries and geographies. The income group diversification in Qatar’s foreign aid policy does not manifest a strong positive inclination toward LDCs.
{"title":"Qatar’s Development Cooperation and Least Developed Countries (LDCs)","authors":"Majed MH Al-Ansari, B. Aras, Nihat Mugurtay","doi":"10.1177/03043754221082899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221082899","url":null,"abstract":"How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the foreign aid behavior of new donors on humanitarian cooperation? The non–OECD-DAC donors, such as Qatar, try to adapt to the new environment of development and humanitarian aid under COVID-19 pandemic. Qatar has successfully used public diplomacy to deal with regional geopolitical challenges. In this sense, the current situation presents an opportunity to Qatar for opening up to new geographies. This research analyzes Qatar’s foreign aid, utilizing a novel dataset on Qatar’s foreign aid interactions before and during the pandemic. These interactions show Qatar’s main recipients of foreign aid, with which country, income group and geography it interacts more. This dataset is essential to demonstrate Qatar’s priorities in humanitarian diplomacy as well. The pandemic makes this dataset even more interesting because it is worthwhile to investigate how a global health shock might affect the aid behavior of a new donor. Our analysis shows that Qatar has increased its foreign aid interactions compared to the pre-pandemic period. Qatar’s foreign aid regime is evolving according to income group and geographical differentiation, new communications with different recipients, revealing the country’s aspirations to be a global donor. However, Qatar’s foreign aid also has many limitations that negatively affect its global status. These factors are related to Qatar’s insistence on providing aid to specific regions and countries. Although Qatar has increased its humanitarian aid interaction with underdeveloped countries and disadvantaged geographies, the country privileges certain countries and geographies. The income group diversification in Qatar’s foreign aid policy does not manifest a strong positive inclination toward LDCs.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"84 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47514370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-03DOI: 10.1177/03043754221076965
Amal Abu-Bakare
This is an eight-page reflection piece on gatekeeping in IR knowledge production and the politics that goes into presenting national racial contestations as issues unworthy of international study and consideration. Premised on a personal experience of scholastic rejection, this commentary is a reflective intervention concerning the state of the field and the imperial connotations of methodological disciplinarity – the process in which IR research is restricted within disciplinary borders because of scholastic endeavours to keep the discipline pure. Here, using anti-imperial thought, I press for deeper consideration and re-evaluation of how academics come to decide which experiences of the world should be deemed worthy of global recognition and where the boundaries of IR should come to an end.
{"title":"Your Work Is Not International Relations","authors":"Amal Abu-Bakare","doi":"10.1177/03043754221076965","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/03043754221076965","url":null,"abstract":"This is an eight-page reflection piece on gatekeeping in IR knowledge production and the politics that goes into presenting national racial contestations as issues unworthy of international study and consideration. Premised on a personal experience of scholastic rejection, this commentary is a reflective intervention concerning the state of the field and the imperial connotations of methodological disciplinarity – the process in which IR research is restricted within disciplinary borders because of scholastic endeavours to keep the discipline pure. Here, using anti-imperial thought, I press for deeper consideration and re-evaluation of how academics come to decide which experiences of the world should be deemed worthy of global recognition and where the boundaries of IR should come to an end.","PeriodicalId":46677,"journal":{"name":"Alternatives","volume":"47 1","pages":"115 - 122"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2022-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48997448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}