DICTAPLOMACY · The international dimensions of authoritarian regime survival: comparing “dictaplomatic” strategies in post-Soviet Eurasia
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-09-15 → 2018-10-31
- EU contribution
- €146,462
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The international dimensions of authoritarian regime survival: comparing “dictaplomatic” strategies in post-Soviet Eurasia
DICTAPLOMACY investigated an understudied dimension of authoritarianism – the use autocrats make of diplomacy for regime-survival. The project analysed the foreign policy strategies and “dictaplomatic” tactics of authoritarian regimes in post-Soviet Eurasia with the aim of modelling the mechanisms whereby diplomacy helped them consolidate and survive. This is an important issue for European society in the sense that “dictaplomats” internationally challenge democratic values, threaten democratic peace, and hamper the EU’s efforts at promoting a rule-based order in its Eastern neighbourhood. DICTAPLOMACY is a multidisciplinary project that combines insights and methods from comparative politics, international relations (IR) theories and foreign policy-making analysis. Its main objective was to elaborate an innovative framework for analysing rogue behaviour in contemporary IR. In identifying the international components of authoritarian resilience, DICTAPLOMACY also highlighted which incentives and coercive means could limit the resilience and contain the diffusion of authoritarian governance. This is a timely endeavour, given the growing assertiveness of Russia in world affairs, and the renewed “nuisance” capacity of its “sharp power” projection, as exemplified by its reliance on hybrid warfare, including disinformation. As a policy-relevant project, DICTAPLOMACY entailed cross-disciplinary fertilisation between scientific research and policy-advocacy work.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
DICTAPLOMACY investigates an understudied dimension of authoritarianism – the use autocrats make of diplomacy as a tool of regime-survival. The project analyses and compares the foreign policy strategies and “dictaplomatic” tactics of four ideal-typical authoritarian regimes in post-Soviet Eurasia, with the aim of modelling the mechanisms whereby diplomacy serves them for external regime-legitimation and authoritarian consolidation. DICTAPLOMACY is a multidisciplinary project that combines insights and methods from comparative politics, international relations (IR) theories and foreign policy-making analysis. It elaborates an innovative framework for analysing rogue behaviour in contemporary IR. It departs from the idea that the EU’s democracy-promotion efforts in Eastern Europe require a better understanding of the foreign policy manoeuvres of post-Soviet authoritarian regimes. In identifying the international components of authoritarian resilience, DICTAPLOMACY also highlights which incentives and coercive means could limit the resilience and contain the diffusion of authoritarian governance. This is a timely endeavour, given the growing assertiveness of Russia in world affairs, and the emerging “nuisance” capacity of many of its undemocratic neighbours (Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan notably) in regional affairs. Building on the researcher’s expertise in post-Soviet transition and the geopolitics of Eurasia, as well as on the leading academic experience of the host institution in diplomatic studies, the Individual Fellowship will provide the experienced researcher with a chance to acquire new skills, thus reinforcing her maturity as an IR scholar, as well as the host institution’s own visibility in the European Research Area. DICTAPLOMACY is a policy-relevant project with a strong potential to entail cross-disciplinary fertilisation between scientific research and policy-advocacy work as well, thanks to the researcher’s planned secondment in a think tank.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- COLLEGIUM CIVITAS · WarszawaCoordinatorPoland
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/659083
- http://www.civitas.edu.pl/collegium/en/our-university/faculty/marin-anais-phd
Data: CORDIS, © European Union