10 results on '"Oppermann, Kai"'
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2. Veto Player Approaches in Foreign Policy Analysis
- Author
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Oppermann, Kai and Brummer, Klaus
- Published
- 2017
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3. Poliheuristic Theory of Decision-Making
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Oppermann, Kai
- Published
- 2018
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4. Clashing Traditions: German Foreign Policy in a New Era.
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Gaskarth, Jamie and Oppermann, Kai
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INTERNATIONAL relations , *PACIFISM , *HEGEMONY , *REGIONALISM , *ISOLATIONISM , *REALISM - Abstract
A series of crises over the last decade have put pressure on Europe's fundamental ordering principles. In response, German policymakers have scrambled to reinterpret Germany's foreign policy for a new era. To understand this process, the authors utilize an interpretivist approach, analyzing the discourse of German foreign policymakers through the lens of four traditions of thought informing debates: regionalism, pacifism, realism, and hegemonism. The article suggests that despite serious challenges, prevailing patterns of belief centered round regionalism and pacifism, supported by a particular civilian understanding of hegemony, persist. Yet, Germany's allies are challenging this framework and calling for it to accept more responsibility for regional and global security. As a result, a realist tradition is reemerging in Germany's discourse. The taxonomy provided here allows a richer understanding of these debates as well as an appreciation of how policymakers mobilize ideas to resist or enable policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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5. British foreign policy after Brexit: losing Europe and finding a role.
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Oppermann, Kai, Beasley, Ryan, and Kaarbo, Juliet
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BREXIT Referendum, 2016 , *INTERNATIONAL relations , *BRITISH withdrawal from the European Union, 2016-2020 , *ROLE conflict , *ROLE theory , *GREAT powers (International relations) - Abstract
British foreign policy stands at a turning point following the 2016 'Brexit' referendum. Drawing on role theory, we trace the United Kingdom's efforts to establish new foreign policy roles as it interacts with the concerned international actors. We find that the pro-Brexit desire to 'take back control' has not yet translated into a cogent foreign policy direction. In its efforts to avoid adopting the role of isolate, the United Kingdom has projected a disoriented foreign policy containing elements of partially incompatible roles such as great power, global trading state, leader of the Commonwealth, regional partner to the European Union (EU) and faithful ally to the United States. The international community has, through processes of socialisation and alter-casting, largely rejected these efforts. These role conflicts between the United Kingdom and international actors, as well as conflicts among its different role aspirations, have pressed UK policies towards its unwanted isolationist role, potentially shaping its long-term foreign policy orientation post-Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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6. Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Navigating Domestic and International Expectations on German Foreign Policy.
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Oppermann, Kai
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INTERNATIONAL relations , *NAVIGATION , *EXPECTATION (Philosophy) - Abstract
This article takes stock of German foreign policy during Angela Merkel's third term in office (2013–17). It argues that the longer-term significance of Germany's foreign policy during this period is twofold. First, the Merkel government was confronted with multiple European and international crises which worked as a magnifying glass for the growing international expectations on Germany to become more actively engaged on the international stage. Second, the tenure of the Grand Coalition saw a significant shift in the German domestic foreign policy discourse that was marked by a concerted effort of leading decision-makers to make the case for Germany to accept greater international responsibilities. This emerging consensus among foreign policy elites expresses a changed self-conception of German foreign policy which, however, continues to be viewed with scepticism in the broader public. Informed by such a broad two-level perspective that focuses on the interplay between international and domestic expectations on German foreign policy, the article explores the record of the Grand Coalition in the main international crises it had to engage with. It suggests that the Merkel government was better able to live up to its own aspirations in two-level contexts which left it with greater domestic room for manoeuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2019
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7. introduction: coalition politics and foreign policy.
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oppermann, kai, kaarbo, juliet, and brummer, klaus
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COALITION governments , *INTERNATIONAL relations , *COMPARATIVE government - Abstract
Multi-party coalitions are an increasingly common type of government across different political regimes and world regions. Since they are the locus of national foreign-policy-making, the dynamics of coalition government have significant implications for International Relations. Despite this growing significance, the foreign-policy-making of coalition governments is only partly understood. This symposium advances the study of coalition foreign policy in three closely related ways. First, it brings together in one place the state of the art in research on coalition foreign policy. Second, the symposium pushes the boundaries of our knowledge on four dimensions that are key to a comprehensive research agenda on coalition foreign policy: the foreign-policy outputs of multi-party coalitions; the process of foreign-policy-making in different types of coalitions; coalition foreign policy in the 'Global South'; and coalition dynamics in non-democratic settings. Finally, the symposium puts forward promising avenues for further research by emphasising, for instance, the value of theory-guided comparative research that employs multi-method strategies and transcends the space of Western European parliamentary democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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8. Telling stories of failure: narrative constructions of foreign policy fiascos.
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Oppermann, Kai and Spencer, Alexander
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INTERNATIONAL relations , *NATIONAL security , *GOVERNMENT policy - Abstract
The contribution introduces narrative analysis as a discourse analytical method for investigating the social construction of foreign policy fiascos. Based on insights from literary studies and narratology it shows that stories of failure include a number of key elements, including a particular setting which defines appropriate behaviour; the negative characterization of agents; as well as an emplotment of the ‘fiasco’ through the attribution of cause and responsibility. The contribution illustrates this method through a narrative analysis of German media reporting on Germany's abstention in the United Nations Security Council vote on Resolution 1973 in March 2011 regarding the military intervention in Libya. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
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- 2016
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9. Counterfactual Reasoning in Foreign Policy Analysis: The Case of German Nonparticipation in the Libya Intervention of 2011.
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HANSEL, MISCHA and OPPERMANN, KAI
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INTERNATIONAL relations , *MILITARY missions , *INTERVENTION (International law) ,LIBYAN foreign relations - Abstract
The abstention of the conservative-liberal government under Chancellor Angela Merkel on UN Security Council resolution 1973 marked the first occasion in which the Federal Republic of Germany stood against all three of its main Western partners, the US, France, and the UK, simultaneously, on a major foreign policy issue. Many accounts of this decision invoke the influence of electoral incentives. What is problematic, however, is that the causal weight attached to electoral politics is often left ambiguous and difficult to assess with traditional case study methods. The article, therefore, employs counterfactual reasoning to scrutinize "electoral politics" explanations of Germany's policy on Libya. Specifically, it develops counterfactuals in which decision making did not take place in the shadow of upcoming elections and investigates how other variables on different levels of analysis would have shaped decision making in the counterfactual scenarios. The findings suggest that electoral incentives did not decisively shift German foreign policy on Libya. More generally, the article speaks to the value of counterfactuals in foreign policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
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10. From Guilt to Responsibility and Beyond? : Change in German Strategic Culture after the End of the Cold War
- Author
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Seppo, Antti, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economic and Political Studies, Helsingin yliopisto, valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, politiikan ja talouden tutkimuksen laitos, Helsingfors universitet, statsvetenskapliga fakulteten, institutionen för politik och ekonomi, Oppermann, Kai, and Forsberg, Tuomas
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international relations - Abstract
This study focuses on aspects of change in German strategic culture, i.e. on the changes in ways of thinking about and pursuing security and defence policy and the views on the questions of peace, war and the use of military force, in particular after the end of the Cold War. The overarching aim of the study is to provide a novel reading on German strategic culture, and this has been done by shifting the focus of research on strategic culture from the study of continuity to the study of change. This enables us to tell better stories about strategic cultures both in terms of how internal and external challenges leading to questions about the continuity of strategic cultural patterns and how strategic culture is shaped by the social and political reality of the strategic actors. The first main contribution of the study is to question the mantra of continuity that has been the primary object of study in the existing strategic culture research. This mantra has ultimately led to a rather stale and static state of affairs in terms of the contributions that strategic culture research is able to make in the field of International Relations. Instead, the study argues for a research agenda that identifies the nature, mechanisms and outcomes of strategic cultural change. The study achieves this by critically assessing the existing accounts of strategic cultural change and creating an analytical framework that stresses both the processes and outcomes of strategic cultural change. This framework is informed by critical realist metatheory since it enables us to move ahead of the epistemological impasse of the existing studies by focusing on the ontological aspects of strategic culture. This framework identifies the experience of warfare as the primary mechanism of change in strategic cultures. The second key contribution of the study is to apply this analytical framework in the study of German strategic culture. The empirical case studies cover the German strategic cultural track record since the end of World War II, with a clear focus on the developments after the end of the Cold War. These case studies show, firstly, how shifts within the normative structure of German strategic culture have shaped German views on the use of military force, and, subsequently, how they led to shifts and changes in German strategic practices. Secondly, the case studies underline the role of external shocks (e.g. the massacre at Srebrenica) in triggering change within German strategic culture. Thirdly, the case studies also provide a basis for a critique of some of the more widely accepted claims regarding German security and defence policy, such as the notion of normalisation or Sonderweg (special path). Finally, the analysis also suggests that counterfactual argumentation can be a useful analytical tool in assessing the importance of some of these developments in the evolution of German strategic culture. The third primary contribution of the study is a critical assessment of the process of coming to terms with the German past and how this affects German strategic culture. The study stresses the importance of socio-cognitive factors in the evolution of strategic cultures and identifies the shift from guilt to responsibility as one of the key changes in post-Cold War German strategic culture. Furthermore, the study recognizes the continuing impact and relevance of the German past on the further development of German strategic culture, even though the focus of the German debate has partly shifted from whether Germany can use military force to a discussion on the means and ends of the use of military force. From Guilt to Responsibility and Beyond? käsittelee muutoksen teemaa Saksan strategisessa kulttuurissa kylmän sodan jälkeen. Tutkimus kattaa Saksan strategisen kulttuurin kehitysvaiheet aina toisen maailmansodan päättymisestä nykyisiin konflikteihin Euroopassa ja Lähi-Idässä. Tutkimus tarjoaa uuden näkökulman strategisen kulttuurin muutoksen tutkimiseen kyseenalaistamalla strategisen kulttuurin tutkimuksessa yleisesti hyväksytyn ajatuksen kulttuurin jatkuvuudesta. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa viritetään uudenlainen analyyttinen viitekehys strategisen kulttuurin tutkimiseen. Tämä kehys pohjautuu teoreettisen näkökulman fokusoimiseen kriittisen realismin painottamiin ontologisiin kysymyksiin epistemologisten kysymysten sijaan. Ehdotettu analyyttinen viitekehys painottaa sitä, että strategisen kulttuurin muutosta on tutkittava sekä poliittisten lopputulemien että yhteiskunnallisten ja poliittisten prosessien kautta. Siten varmistutaan siitä, että strategisen kulttuurin tutkiminen ei palvele ainoastaan teoreettisia lähtökohtia vaan pyrkii ottamaan huomioon myös yhteiskunnallisen todellisuuden moninaisuuden ja sen ilmentymät. Tutkimuksesta nouseva pääargumentti on se, että strategisen kulttuurin tutkimuksessa pitää kiinnittää huomiota ideationaalisen/normatiivisen rakenteen ohella sekä strategisen kulttuurin syvärakenteeseen, eli niihin sosio-kognitiviisiin prosesseihin, jotka ovat osa strategisen kulttuurin perustaa, että strategisen kulttuurin käytäntöihin, jotka ilmenevät esimerkiksi strategisen toiminnan institutionalisoituneina muotoina. Tutkimus tarjoaa uuden Saksan strategisen kulttuurin muutosta selittävän mallin, joka pohjautuu muutoksen ensisijaisen kausaalisen mekanismin korostamiseen. Tämä mekanismi on 'sodan kokemus', jota ei kuitenkaan voi redusoida uuspositivistiseen ajatukseen kokemuksesta. Tutkimuksessa esitetäänkin, että tämä kokemus on havaittavissa nimenomaan sosio-kognitiviisen tason muutoksina. Saksan strategisen kulttuurin tapauksessa tämä on usein tarkoittanut muutosta menneisyydestä kumpuavasta syyllisyyden tunteesta vastuuseen nykyisyydestä ja tulevaisuudesta.
- Published
- 2017
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