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Cosmopolitan Elites narrates the birth, everyday life, and fracturing of a Western-dominated global order from its margins. It offers a critical sociological examination of the elite Indian Foreign Service and its members, many of whom were present at the founding of this order. Kira Huju explores how these diplomats set out to remake the service in the name of a radically anti-colonial global subaltern, but often ended up seeking status within its hierarchies through social mimicry of its most powerful actors. This is a book about the struggles of belonging: it revisits what it takes to be a recognized member of international society and asks what the experience of historically marginalized...
The European Union means many different things to its many peoples. In Germany, for example, the European project was conceived mainly as post-national, or even post-sovereign. In France, by contrast, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued the vision of a sovereign Europe; that is, an EU that would become a formidable geopolitical actor. Yet, instead, Europe has struggled to ascertain its values abroad and even domestically, facing a sovereignist rebellion from its newer member states, such as Hungary and Poland, and the departure of Britain. The eurozone crisis has undermined the EU’s economic credentials, the refugee crisis its societal cohesion, the failure to stand up to Russia its sens...
A country’s stature in global politics is often determined by its popular image and public perceptions, as reflected in global media. While ‘nation branding’ as a term and a tool of analysis in Social Sciences has emerged prominently since the 1990s, the practice of ‘positive’ projection of states, regions and locality along with non-state institutions has deeper historical roots. Apart from nation branding, the cultural turn in ‘International Relations’ has led to popularisation of analytical concepts like ‘soft power’ and ‘civilisation’ or ‘civilisational states.’ The present work focuses on two of these concepts: ‘nation branding’ and ‘civilisation state’...
The European Union (EU) is facing one of the rockiest periods in its existence. No time in its history has it looked so economically fragile, so unsecure about how to protect its borders, so divided over how to tackle the crisis of legitimacy facing its institutions, and so under assault of Eurosceptic parties. The unprecedented levels of integration in recent decades have led to increased public contestation, yet at the same the EU is more reliant on public support for its continued legitimacy than ever before. This book examines the role of public opinion in the European integration process. It develops a novel theory of public opinion that stresses the deep interconnectedness between peop...
Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice offers a very different take on Brexit to those found in most news segments or opinion pieces. Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Professor of International Relations at Oxford University, examines Britain's relationship with the EU through the lens of Greek mythology, using three key archetypes to analyse the differing visions of the world that have clashed so dramatically over this issue. 'Exodus' makes Brexit a story about British exceptionalism; both a British problem and a testimony to the EU’s incapacity to accommodate exceptions. 'Reckoning' brings the story back to the EU’s shores, with Brexit a harbinger of terrible truths which we lump together under the easy lab...
The handbook delves into the shifting power dynamics in diplomacy, exploring the establishment of embassies in technology hubs, the challenges faced by foreign affairs departments in adapting to digital technologies, and the utilization of digital tools as a means of exerting influence.
Ministries of foreign affairs are prominent institutions of state diplomacy. They remain the operators of key practices associated with diplomacy: communication, representation and negotiation. This book fills a gap by approaching ministries of foreign affairs in a comparative and comprehensive way.
How can we interpret and respond to the rise of populist regimes that infringe on human rights? This incisive book analyses illiberal, repressive, and patriarchal logics of rule, identifying critical catalysts in the meteoric growth of populist agendas. Contributors scrutinise the records of authoritarian and nationalist leaders in Brazil, Hungary, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Turkey and the United States.
Diving into an original and unusually positive case study from India, Patching Development shows how development programs can be designed to work. How can development programs deliver benefits to marginalized citizens in ways that expand their rights and freedoms? Political will and good policy design are critical but often insufficient due to resistance from entrenched local power systems. In Patching Development, Rajesh Veeraraghavan presents an ethnography of one of the largest development programs in the world, the Indian National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and examines NREGA's implementation in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. He finds that the local system of powe...
In The Absent Dialogue, Anit Mukherjee examines the relations between politicians, bureaucrats, and the military in India and argues that the pattern of civil-military relations in India hampers the effectiveness of the Indian military. Informed by more than a hundred and fifty interviews with high ranking officials, as well as archival material, this book sheds new light on both India's political and military history, as well as democratic civilian control and military effectiveness more generally.