Speaker
Description
Why and how are states inclined towards strategic preferences in foreign policy? Why do they prefer certain instruments of coercion over others? Part of IR scholarship advocates that a strategic culture approach offers highly relevant perspectives on foreign policy decision-making. The project seeks to investigate the role of strategic culture when it comes to coerce an adversary. From a theoretical perspective, it treats strategic culture as a companion theory, pulling together a traditional interest in power politics with subjectivity. Relying on this background, it builds an analytical framework, based on the assumption that strategic culture shapes the way in which states conceptualize coercion, and disposes them towards preferring certain tools over others. The project then provides three empirical illustrations: Russia, Turkey, and India. The analysis employs a mixed-methods approach, using security documents on coercion as text-as-data, and qualitative interviews with relevant academic and policy experts. The project further contributes to the research on strategic culture and coercion, which remains relatively underdeveloped in strategic studies. Moreover, it provides additional insights on the countries under study, which find relevant academic and policy implications. Lastly, it brings in the use of computational methods, which still have few applications in security studies.
| What discipline or branch of humanities or social sciences do you identify yourself with? | International Relations; Strategic Studies |
|---|---|
| If you are submitting an Open Panel proposal, have you included all four abstracts in attachment? | No, I am submitting a Closed Panel abstract |
| Are you a PhD student or early-career researcher? | Yes |
