INTRODUCTION
How can a country reinforce its position in the world community? What determines national potential of power? What is the "golden ticket" to the elitist club of the most powerful states, which set the world's agenda? The definite answer to these questions does not exist, because there are no written rules or instructions "how to get the power and authority worldwide".
Modern system of international relations is changing and becoming more and more complex, that is why the power cannot be understood as an indivisible concept. It directly affects foreign policies of the countries and makes them develop new efficient methods and instruments to succeed on the world arena, some of which have not been examined to the full extent yet.
In past few years the "soft" power direction in the policy gained popularity worldwide. However, that concept has had a particular meaning for France for a long time that is primarily connected to its history and specific features, and this fact makes France a subject of great worth for research, because French experience can be adopted by the countries who have fewer achievements in terms of "soft" power, for instance, Russia.
Thus, the subject of the paper is French foreign policy and, consequently, the topic is the implementation of "soft" power instruments in French foreign policy. The reason why this sphere dominates as one of the main directions of French foreign policy is that now France positions itself as a middle power with global interests, but it does not possess enough resources of military and economic power ("hard" power) to assure these "global interests", so France fills that gap with "soft" power.
The main purpose of the research is to analyse the role of "soft" power instr...
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...oft" power is French language that is supposed to be not only the means of communication, but also an instrument of foreign policy because of its historical importance on both regional and international level.
Nevertheless, French "soft" power is not as efficient as American and British. It is mostly owing to the global expansion of English, which became a "world" language in the époque of globalisation thanks to the significant role of the US and the UK in world trade and finances, and, at the same time, higher potential of cultural export of Anglo-Saxon countries used to the full extent.
Still, despite certain deficiencies, French "soft" power scheme demonstrates impressive results and can serve as a vivid example of state policy aimed at creating favourable country image and, in such a way, reinforcing its position in the modern system of international relations.
What is power? Power has no exact definition, as show by the movie “Chocolate y Fresa”. In the movie “Fresa y Chocolate” a homosexual artist named Diego tries to seduce David who is a straight young man who happens to be communist, David is only interested in Diego so that he can monitor Diego’s flamboyant lifestyle. But as they begin to discuss politics in communist Cuba they begin to develop a legitimate friendship. Power is show many different ways throughout the movie and according to Foucault, “power is everywhere”. In this essay I will explain how power is perceived in Cuba using the movie “Fresa y Chocolate” using evidence from the movie supported by Asli Daldal’s “Power in the Eyes of Foucault”and José Martí’s “Our America” in order
Louis also gained support from people by reforming France’s foreign policy. By adopting an aggressive foreign strategy (to expand France’s borders to “the natural boundaries of anc...
Murray and McCoy discussed the security of having a middle power foreign policy and why it is bad to have a co-peace-building foreign policy. During the Cold War, Canada had a protection strategy on how to protect itself while at the ...
A major part of this involves past actions between the two partners, and can one do with with little cost to themselves. In terms of past actions, France had little to rely on. France lost the Franco-Prussian war to Germany and was essentially destroyed by Germany in World War I. With Germany eventually crippled, France could easily enforce the Treaty of Versailles, but when Germany ran out of available payment, France could not force the Germans to pay anything else and so the economy collapsed. In response Great Britain and the United States send aid relief which caused the public to view the France as the bad guy. France decides to not to demand any more reparations, and will not demand any without the consent of the British, so in a sense the French just lost all of the credibility that they could have
As a permanent member of The UN Security Council and one of the founding countries of European Union, France has very complex multilateral relationships.
charged as the world’s Super-Power. It is a title that each country both loathes and
Pierre Bourdieu was a highly influential theorist. He provides a unique and fascinating definition or understanding of power as well as an explanation and analysis into how power works. This work serves to outline what is this specific concept of power means and contains, how it is created, what are the various forms it takes on and in general, how power works. Power is a difficult concept to define conclusively or definitively however, Bourdieu explains power to be a symbolic construct that is perpetuated through every day actions and behaviours of a society, that manipulate power relations to create, maintain and force the conforming of peoples to the given habitus of that society (Bourdieu, 1977). Power, is a force created through the social conventions of a specific community that dictate what is expected or accepted by the people while also determining how they understand the world in which they live (Bourdieu, 1977).
To understand the power struggle relating to foreign policymaking, it is crucial to understand what foreign policy entails. The Foreign Policy Agenda of the U.S. Department of State declares the goals of foreign policy as "to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community." While this definition is quite vague, the actual tools of foreign policy include Diplomacy, foreign aid, and military force.
Theory: Michel Foucault argues a number of points in relation to power and offers definitions that are directly opposed to more traditional liberal and Marxist theories of power. Foucault believed that power is never in any one person's hands, it does not show itself in any obvious manner but rather as something that works its way into our imaginations and serves to constrain how we act.... ... middle of paper ... ... Giddons, A. (2007). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
France knew that Britain was engaged in a foreign policy called “splendid isolation” Splendid isolation is what kept the n...
Schmidt, B. C. (2007). Realism and facets of power in international relations. In F. Berenskoetter & M. J. D. Williams (Eds.), Power in world politics (pp. 43-63). London: Routledge.
Some theorists believe that ‘power is everywhere: not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere… power is not an institution, nor a structure, nor possession. It is the name we give to a complex strategic situation in a particular society. (Foucault, 1990: 93) This is because power is present in each individual and in every relationship. It is defined as the ability of a group to get another group to take some form of desired action, usually by consensual power and sometimes by force. (Holmes, Hughes &Julian, 2007) There have been a number of differing views on ‘power over’ the many years in which it has been studied. Theorist such as Anthony Gidden in his works on structuration theory attempts to integrate basic structural analyses and agency-centred traditions. According to this, people are free to act, but they must also use and replicate fundamental structures of power by and through their own actions. Power is wielded and maintained by how one ‘makes a difference’ and based on their decisions and actions, if one fails to exercise power, that is to ‘make a difference’ then power is lost. (Giddens: 1984: 14) However, more recent theorists have revisited older conceptions including the power one has over another and within the decision-making processes, and power, as the ability to set specific, wanted agendas. To put it simply, power is the ability to get others to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do. In the political arena, therefore, power is the ability to make or influence decisions that other people are bound by.
The first paradigm of international relations is the theory of Realism. Realism is focused on ideas of self-interest and the balance of power. Realism is also divided into two categories, classical realism and neo-realism. Famous political theorist, Hans Morgenthau was a classical realist who believed that national interest was based on three elements, balance of power, military force, and self interest (Kleinberg 2010, 32). He uses four levels of analysis to evaluate the power of a state. The first is that power and influence are not always the same thing. Influence means the ability to affect the decision of those who have the power to control outcomes and power is the ability to determine outcomes. An example of influence and power would be the UN’s ability to influence the actions of states within the UN but the state itself has the power to determine how they act. Morgenthau goes on to his next level of analysis in which he explains the difference in force and power in the international realm. Force is physical violence, the use of military power but power is so much more than that. A powerful state can control the actions of another state with the threat of force but not actually need to physical force. He believed that the ability to have power over another state simply with the threat of force was likely to be the most important element in analysis the power of as state (Kleinberg 2010, 33-34).
A country’s struggle for power is much like that of two rival siblings. They are locked in constant competition as they attempt to one-up the other. Countries do the same as they race against each other to produce better exports, and to attract more money into their economy. They are constantly vying against each other for the center of attention, so that they are the main focal point of the international world. This competition continues until one finally relents, or blatantly falls, and allows the other to shine; much like how China is slowly managing to overtake the U.S. in terms of international influence.
The study of international relations takes a wide range of theoretical approaches. Some emerge from within the discipline itself others have been imported, in whole or in part, from disciplines such as economics or sociology. Indeed, few social scientific theories have not been applied to the study of relations amongst nations. Many theories of international relations are internally and externally contested, and few scholars believe only in one or another. In spite of this diversity, several major schools of thought are discernable, differentiated principally by the variables they emphasize on military power, material interests, or ideological beliefs. International Relations thinking have evolved in stages that are marked by specific debates between groups of scholars. The first major debate is between utopian liberalism and realism, the second debate is on method, between traditional approaches and behavioralism. The third debate is between neorealism/neoliberalism and neo-Marxism, and an emerging fourth debate is between established traditions and post-positivist alternatives (Jackson, 2007).