Routledge Domestic Role Contestation, Foreign Policy, and International Relations

Despite the increase in the number of studies in international relations using concepts from a role theory perspective, scholarship continues to assume that a state’s own expectations of what role it should play on the world stage is shared among domestic political actors. Cristian Cantir and Juliet Kaarbo have gathered a leading team of internationally distinguished international relations scholars to draw on decades of research in foreign policy analysis to explore points of internal contestation of national role conceptions (NRCs) and the effects and outcomes of contestation between domestic political actors. Nine detailed comparative case studies have been selected for the purpose of theoretical exploration, with an eye to illustrating the relevance of role contestation in a diversity of settings, including variation in period, geographic area, unit of analysis, and aspects of the domestic political process. This edited book includes a number of pioneering insights into how the domestic political process can have a crucial effect on how a country behaves at the global level. Review 'Cantir and Kaarbo assemble in this volume nine thoughtful case studies of national role conflict in advanced democracies, constituting the first major study of role contestation among political elites and between elites and the general public. This is a key contribution to the burgeoning literature applying role theory to the study of foreign policy, and one that offers valuable insights into a deeply controversial political issue: as citizens, what role do we wish for our country to play in the world?' - Paul Kowert, UMass Boston, USA About the Author Cristian Cantir is an assistant professor of political science at Oakland University in Michigan, USA. Some of his research interests include the domestic determinants of foreign policy behavior, the diplomatic activities of substate governments, role theory, and historical approaches to IR. Juliet Kaarbo is a professor of international relations with a chair in foreign policy at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is codirector of Edinburgh’s Centre for Security Research. Her research focuses on political psychology, leadership and decision making, group dynamics, foreign policy analysis and theory, parliamentary political systems, and national roles.