Presentation for the students who study Foreign Policy Analysis

1. Foreign Policy Analysis
INTERNATIONAL ATATURK ALATOO UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

2. Discourse analysis, post-
structuralism, and foreign
policy
DONE BY ELENA ROMANENKO IR-4B

3. Power-from capability to discourse
 It is the 3rd realist assumption that “Power is the fundamental feature of
politics”;
 “Language as power”;
 “In realism, power is understood as compulsory power, as control over
others, and this implies a focus on how one state is able to use material
resources to advance its interests in direct opposition to the interests of
another”-Barnett, Duval.

4. There are 2 misunderstandings:
 Post-structuralism disregards materiality;
 It takes language to be transparent or truthful;

5. The politics of representation
 Post-structuralists see language as the central social medium through
which meaning is generated.
 Foreign policy discources must provide representations of the problem that
policies are aimed at solving. (Shapiro)
 “Road Map”
 The aim of foreign policy discourse analysis is to identify and analyse the
main discursive structures as well as the more subtle differences and
variations;

6. The scope and stability of foreign
policy
 Discourse analysts study official foreign policies, but may also broaden the
scope to include political parties not in government, the media, NGOs,
and others who engage in foreign policy debates.

7. Change and genealogy
 There are 2 main routes through which shifts in foreign policy are
produced.
 Example 1: To bring democracy and security to Afghanistan;
 Example 2: A massive change in Western discourse followed the
dismanting of the Soviet Union;

8. The scope, strengths, weaknesses of
discourse analysis
 The scope, theoretical assumptions and methodological techniques of
discourse analysis provide it with strengths and weaknesses.
 Its strengths reside in its ability to provide rich analysis of the discursive
structures that underpin foreign policies.
 In terms of its weaknesses those depend on who one asks.

9.  Thank you for attention!!!