Inequality as Opportunity: Status and Role (Re)definition in the International System

Vandamme, Dorothée;Struye de Swielande, Tanguy
(2016) IPSA World Congress — Location: Poznan, Poland (23.July.2016)

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As China emerges as possible peer-competitor, destabilizing the American-led system, windows of opportunity enable other emerging powers, such as India, Brazil or Indonesia, to assert and position themselves on the international stage. These countries seek to reach a status they perceive as more adequate to their power and self-conceived role(s). A perception commonly shared among them focuses on their current underestimated place in world affairs, and the role they wish to play in them. Drawing from sociology and social psychology, the paper seeks to develop a theoretical framework to answer the following question: How can role theory and the processes of status-seeking explain the current foreign policy of emerging countries and their impact on the evolution of the international system? In order to answer that question, we argue that the perceived inequality of power and unfair role distribution leads a number of countries to search for a status they perceive as “better” and more adequate. Legitimation is central to this process, highlighting the relational dimension of power: if a country wants to emerge as leader, whether regional or global, it will need to be recognized as such by prominent system’s members. Accordingly, the structuration of the system is based on its members’ responses to leadership in terms on validation or contestation. The paper thus identifies the challenges and opportunities the evolution of the international system represents for these emerging countries and for leading countries who whish to engage with them.
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Vandamme, D., & Struye de Swielande, T. (2016). Inequality as Opportunity: Status and Role (Re)definition in the International System. IPSA World Congress, Poznan, Poland. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/181485