The State between Interdependence and Power in the Contemporary World

Elena Aoun, Pierre Vercauteren (eds)

The State between
Interdependence and Power
in the Contemporary World:
a reassessment

Geopolitics and Conflict Resolution

Vol. 23

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Aoun, Elena, editor. | Vercauteren, Pierre, editor.

Title: The State between Interdependence and Power in the Contemporary World: a reassessment / Elena Aoun and Pierre Vercauteren (eds.)

Description: Bruxelles : P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2018. | Series: Geopolitics and conflict resolution, ISSN 1780-5848 ; Vol. 23 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018040883 (print) | LCCN 2018051165 (ebook) | ISBN 9782807602571 (Print) | ISBN 9782807602588 (EBook) | ISBN 9782807602595 (EPub) | ISBN 9782807602601 (Mobi) | ISBN 9782807602571 | ISBN 9782807602588 (ePDF) | ISBN 9782807602595 (ePub)

Subjects: LCSH: International organization. | International relations. | World politics--21st century. | State, The. | Regionalism (International organization) | Middle powers.

Classification: LCC JZ1308 (ebook) | LCC JZ1308 .S725 2018 (print) | DDC 327.101--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018040883

This publication has been peer reviewed.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photocopy, microfilm or any other means, without prior written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

© P.I.E. Peter Lang s.a.

International Academic Publishers

Brussels, 2019

1 avenue Maurice, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

brussels@peterlang.com; www.peterlang.com

ISSN 1780-5848

ISBN 978-2-8076-0257-1

ePDF 978-2-8076-0258-8

ePUB 978-2-8076-0259-5

MOBI 978-2-8076-0260-1

DOI 10.3726/b15010

D/2018/5678/100

Bibliographic information published by “Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek”.

“Die Deutsche National Bibliothek” lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at <http://dnb.de>.

About the editors

Elena Aoun holds a PhD from Science Po Paris and is currently assistant professor in International Relations at the Université catholique de Louvain. Her research interests revolve around EU foreign policy, the conflicts and crises in the Middle East and international involvement in the region.

Pierre Vercauteren is professor in International Relations at the Université catholique de Louvain and visiting professor at the Université Paris Est, and at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brasil. He is also secretary general of the international research network REGIMEN.

About the book

For decades, the discipline of International Relations (IR) has been defined by the centrality of the state as the international actor par excellence and most debates on this key actor have developed from the perspective of ‘power’ as a defining notion. Later, IR analysts awoke to a new context that appeared to be the consequence of multiple evolutions and trends which began decades earlier but remained mostly unnoticed or underestimated. None of these trends that underpin today’s global context leaves the state and traditional notions of power unaffected. There is therefore a need to reassess the place of the state as it faces all the challenges of this more complex international reality. Part of a pluriannual research project undertaken in the framework of the Research Network on International Governance, Globalization and the Transformations of the State (REGIMEN), this book seeks to address these core issues from various perspectives, allowing for broad and detailed analyses alike.

The first part of the volume offers new theoretical insights on power in the contemporary international system. The second part offers a collection of chapters equally interested in developed middle powers and emerging ones, with a focus on state practices in a period characterized by multiple crises and shifting power distribution. Finally, the last section tackles the hollowing out of state power from very different perspectives, in quite different configurations of interdependence, and in various countries or regions.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

IntroductionReassessing the State: Interdependence and Power in the World Today

Elena Aoun and Pierre Vercauteren

Part I

New Readings of Power

Relations and Processes: Two Neglected Characteristics of Power

Tanguy Struye de Swielande and Dorothée Vandamme

Emerging Powers: Between Interdependence and Power?

Pierre Vercauteren

A Constructivist Form of Hedging in Southeast Asia

Bruno Hellendorff

Part II

Developed States and Emerging Power(s)

Competition and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific: Why Major Powers Hedge and what Does this Mean for Regional Order

Elena Atanassova-Cornelis←7 | 8→

Brazil under President Lula: A New Key Player in the Contemporary World

Amine Ait-Chaalal

When Crisis Breeds Regional Governance: How the Developmental State Bankruptcy Led Brazil to Innovate in Foreign Policy and Wield “Soft Power” all over Latin America

Dawisson Belém Lopes

The State Muddled in Co-Dependencies and Incremental Policy-Making: The Case of the Economic and Financial Crisis in the European Union

Alain Guggenbühl and Frank Lambermont

Part III

The Many Faces of Interdependence and the Hollowing out of State Power

Belgian Development Cooperation and the Promotion of Good Governance: Testing the Power of Incentives in Central Africa

Sidney Leclercq and Geoffroy Matagne

Globalization and Democracy: Friends or Foes?

Corinne Mellul

Failing States, International Blindness and the Rise of Radical Islam: Unintended Interdependence and Unexpected Powerlessness in the Middle East

Elena Aoun

About the Authors←8 | 9→

Acknowledgements

This book is part of a pluriannual research project of the international research network REGIMEN (Réseau d’Etude sur la Globalisation et la Gouvernance Internationale et les Mutations de l’Etat et des Nations; Research Network on Globalization and International Governance and the Transformation of the State and Nations). In the last years, REGIMEN has dedicated its research to the power of the state in a context of interdependence, with a special focus on the issues of belonging and participation.

We would like to warmly thank Daniel Rochat and Annick Bacq who have patiently and efficiently worked for months on the chapters in order to harmonize them. Their contribution has been key in bringing the book to fruition.

We would also like to express our gratitude to the director of this collection, Tanguy de Wilde, for his unwavering support and constructive reviewing of the book.

Last but not least, we would like to mention the generosity and support of the National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), the US Embassy in Brussels, ISPOLE, the CECRI and the Egmont Institute, the EDT FSR and the Belgian Political Science Association (ABSP).←9 | 10→ ←10 | 11→

List of abbreviations

A2/AD Anti-access/area-denial

ABDI Brazilian Agency of Industrial Development

ACROPOLIS ACademic Research Organisation for POlicy Support Programme

AIIB Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank

APT ASEAN+3

ARES-CCD Académie de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur – Commission de la Coopération au Développement