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, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
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DOMESTIC ROLE CONTESTATION,
FOREIGN POLICY, AND
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Despite the increase in the number of studies in International Relations using con
cepts 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 inter
nationally 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 illustrat
ing 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.
Cristian Cantir is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oakland University
in Michigan,
