TY - JOUR
T1 - The Servant of Many Masters
T2 - The Multiple Commitments of State- Agents
AU - Abramson, Yehonatan
AU - Heimann, Gadi
AU - Kampf, Zohar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s) (2022). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association.
PY - 2022/9/1
Y1 - 2022/9/1
N2 - Personal commitments are a ubiquitous but undertheorized phenomenon in the everyday wheels of world politics. While resonating with multiple threads in international relations theory, the role of individuals' commitments in statecraft, diplomacy, and foreign policy has hardly been addressed in and of itself. Drawing on insights from symbolic interactionism and organizational psychology, this article conceptualizes the notion of commitment highlighting its omnipresence in foreign policy and diplomatic practice. Specifically, the article demonstrates the analytical cache of the notion of commitment by focusing on moments when state-agents deviated from their commitment to the national interest, acting on behalf of other foci of commitment. Relying on Israeli, French, and EU diplomatic archives, we examine three illustrative case studies that show how and why state-agents dedicate time, energy, and resources to advance interests other than those of the state.
AB - Personal commitments are a ubiquitous but undertheorized phenomenon in the everyday wheels of world politics. While resonating with multiple threads in international relations theory, the role of individuals' commitments in statecraft, diplomacy, and foreign policy has hardly been addressed in and of itself. Drawing on insights from symbolic interactionism and organizational psychology, this article conceptualizes the notion of commitment highlighting its omnipresence in foreign policy and diplomatic practice. Specifically, the article demonstrates the analytical cache of the notion of commitment by focusing on moments when state-agents deviated from their commitment to the national interest, acting on behalf of other foci of commitment. Relying on Israeli, French, and EU diplomatic archives, we examine three illustrative case studies that show how and why state-agents dedicate time, energy, and resources to advance interests other than those of the state.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134368367&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/isq/sqac026
DO - 10.1093/isq/sqac026
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AN - SCOPUS:85134368367
SN - 0020-8833
VL - 66
JO - International Studies Quarterly
JF - International Studies Quarterly
IS - 3
M1 - sqac026
ER -