International Relations

C19(a) - Norms and Global Politics

Date: Jun 14 | Time: 01:45pm to 03:15pm | Location: McGill College 2001 735

Chair/Président/Présidente : Carla Barqueiro (Widener University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Carla Barqueiro (Widener University)

Egypt’s Soft Power in Africa: The Shift from a Norm-Based Approach to Developmental Diplomacy: Gamal Selim (The British University in Egypt)
Abstract: Ever since Egypt’s full independence in 1956, the concept of soft power has represented an integral part of Egyptian foreign policy in dealing with actual and/or perceived threats at the regional and global levels. During the 1950s and 1960s, Egypt adopted a norm-based approach to soft power in the domain of foreign policy. This was manifest in Egypt’s reliance on a wide array of normative instruments which acted as sources of inspiration within the traditional domains of Egyptian foreign policy, namely the African, the Arab and the Islamic domains. In the African domain, Egypt projected itself as a major champion of the principle of ‘self-determination’ through its substantive support of Africa’s national liberation movements in their struggle for independence and its contribution in the founding of the Organization for African Unity (OAU) in 1963. This anti-imperialist role provided Egypt with substantive political leverage in the African continent. Nevertheless, Egypt’s soft power gradually lost its appeal following a number of major turbulent episodes from the late 1960s onward, chiefly among them were the 1967 Egypt military defeat, the change of political leadership in 1970, and the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. These episodes and their subsequent developments, coupled with Egypt’s acute economic crises at home, were instrumental in undermining Egypt’s influence in Africa. Over next four decades, Egypt became more preoccupied with domestic issues at the expense of external causes, leading it to lose much of its regional and international influence, in addition to its social, political, economic and cultural persuasiveness abroad. However, with the rise of President Sisi to power in 2014, Egypt, for the first time in four decades, has formulated a proactive foreign policy doctrine based on a nationalistic reassertion of Egypt’s national interests and freedom of maneuver within region. In Africa, the new foreign policy doctrine has been manifest in Egypt’s attempt to restore its soft power influence in the African continent in response to a number of emerging threats, chiefly among them is the Ethiopian ‘Renaissance Dam’ project and its potential threat to Egypt’s water security. Nevertheless, in divergence from the historical norm-based approach, Egypt has recently adopted a development-based approach, or developmental diplomacy, to the exercise and projection of its soft power in Africa. In the context of this new approach, Egypt has sought to project itself as a reliable partner for African states in the area of development. This role has been exercised through Egypt’s active participation in implementing of a wide range of infrastructure development projects across the continent, as well as mobilizing necessary financial resources in areas of priority for Africa in a way that ensures the achievement of the goals of Africa Development Agenda 2063. In this context, this paper seeks to critically analyze the evolution and dynamics of Egypt’s soft power diplomacy in Africa since independence. Towards this end, the following questions require investigation: What is the Egyptian perception of soft power in the domain of foreign policy? What are the main pillars, both historically and contemporarily, of Egypt’s soft power diplomacy in Africa? What are the elements of continuity and change in the Egyptian approach to soft power towards the African continent? What are the potential challenges and/or limitations on Egyptian soft power in Africa?

Gender Equality in the Refugee Regime: Whose Practices, Whose Norms?: Merve Erdilmen (McGill University)
Abstract: Gender equality norms have critical implications for the governance of forced migration. Scholars have paid close attention to states and international organizations’ gender equality policies. Yet, these policies have contributed to longstanding helper-victim binary in humanitarian responses to displacement, and hence have neglected refugees’ agency in shaping and challenging gendered power asymmetries embedded in the global refugee regime – an ironic outcome as one of the central goals of these policies has been to tackle and overcome these binaries. To unpack how helper-victim binary has reproduced on everyday basis in the refugee regime, I focus on the case of gender equality practices of refugee-led organizations, that are both subject and target of gender equality programs. Drawing upon multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Turkey, I show that refugee-led organizations not only uphold gender equality practices promoted by donors and international organizations, but also advance and advocate for more culturally sensitive practices of gender equality. I argue for re-orienting the outlook of global governance of forced migration, and instead for approaching the norms of gender equality from the perspective of refugee-led organizations to unpack power relations embedded in humanitarian governance. A close examination of refugee-led organizations’ distinct gender equality practices and other humanitarian actors’ perceptions of these practices further demonstrates contestations of refugee agency in the refugee regime.

Security Shifts and Public Sentiment: How the Recent Shifts in East Asia Geopolitics Affect Japanese Pacifist Norms: Jozef Rivest (Université de Montréal)
Abstract: Do the recent changes in the East Asian security environment affect Japanese public opinion toward military institutions (i.e., Article 9 of the Constitution and the Self-Defense Forces)? This study seeks to understand if the rise of China’s military power and assertiveness, but also the development of North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear capabilities influence the pacifist and non-militaristic norms in Japan’s population. Prior studies have mainly focused on endogenous factors to explain their roots and the variation in attitudes (e.g., Machida 2021; 2023). Others have demonstrated how these norms have “defined the policy interests and the standards of appropriateness for specific policy choices” (Katzenstein and Okawara 1993, 6). Thus, these researches have implicitly treated these norms as relatively immune to the changes on the international level. Using a range of survey data (Todai-Asahi, NHK, Yomiuri, Asahi, Pewresearch Center, Jiji Press) relative to the revision of the Article 9 and the Self-Defense Forces, we empirically evaluate the recent evolution in public opinion from 2000 to 2023. Through time series analysis, this paper focus on the contrast before and after 2011-2012, marked by the arrival of Kim Jong-Un as leader of North Korea, Xi Jinping as head of China, and the reelection of Shinzo Abe as Prime Minister of Japan. Quantifying these changes will shed light on how international events may shape domestic public opinion, contributing to debates on public opinion's influence in international relations and its role in foreign policy decision-making beyond the United States.

Agency of the Post-Colonial State: Beyond Western Sovereignty Through Inhabiting the International Norm: Tomas Hatala (Carleton University)
Abstract: This paper contributes to the long-standing agency/structure debate within International Relations literature by problematizing the concept of agency through the lens of postcolonial resilience. The traditional understanding of state sovereignty as a structural constituent of the international, where it manifests as autonomy and self-determination and resistance vis-a-vis the international order, has been increasingly problematized through post-colonial literature which questions how postcolonial subjects experience agency itself. However, such challenges have remained focused on the subaltern, embodied subject and rarely been applied to the concept of the state/sovereign and the international. Thus, within Eurocentric IR, the ability of sovereign states to resist and challenge the existing normative structure of the international is often read as agentic, while those that do not have such an ability – such as postcolonial states – as lacking in agency, or non-agentic. This paper argues we need to move beyond this limited vision of agency to capture the experience of postcolonial states in the current international order, which in many cases experience sovereignty as a contingent norm rather than a given, structural attribute of the international. Consequently, Saba Mahmood’s notion of agency as ‘inhabiting the norm’ allows us to explore the subjectivity of postcolonial states as those which operate agentively but without being able to articulate their own sovereignty within the international domain. Deploying Achille Mbembe’s necropolitics and Michel Foucault’s biopolitics, this paper ultimately concludes that sovereignty of the post-colonial states serves to reaffirm the Western states’ ability to shape and condition the international.

Old Foes in A New 'Conflict': Neoliberalism, Ultra-nationalism, and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments in the Digital Age in Africa: Surulola Eke (Queen's University)
Abstract: International Relations Constructivism offers extensive insights into the processes of social learning and persuasion that facilitate norm diffusion and localization among state and (corporate) non-state actors. However, there's a lot more to learn about how and why norms travel from global cores and are adopted and/or localized in global peripheries, especially in the context of individual citizens. How and why, for instance, do global migration norms influence immigration sentiments in high migrant-receiving African cities, such as Johannesburg, Durban, Nairobi, Mombasa, Accra, and Kumasi? I explore this question based on over 300 qualitative interviews and a dozen regression tests, which demonstrate that pro- and anti-immigrant sentiments in Africa are shaped by global migration norms that have been appropriated wittingly or unwittingly to advance domestic political agenda or no agenda at all. Contrary to the Eurocentric theses on the mobilization of political cues from partisan political leaders in the development of anti-immigrant sentiments in Europe, the mainstream English and Vernacular media in Africa are the central factor shaping migration attitudes one way or the other owing to the popular perception of their high professional ethos.