Research Jan Melissen

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to examine how states make use of humanitarian diplomacy to achieve a position of authority in the international community. The Marshall plan – a American program of aid, offered to European countries after the devastation of the Second World War, which contributed strongly to the legitimation of American power – constitutes a well-known early example. Grateful for the generous gift, the recipient countries endowed the United States with political authority in the form of international leadership. More recently, other states have developed a similar strategy, with Norway being a well-known example of a country investing heavily in humanitarian aid and reaping the benefit of above average moral authority in world politics. Other contemporary examples are China, with its Belt and Road Initiative being supported by significant humanitarian programs, and also a number of regional powers in the Islamic world that appear sometimes to be involved a humanitarian bidding competition.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Kustermans Jorg
• Co-promoter: Melissen Jan

Research team(s)

• International Politics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Substate diplomacy questions our assumptions with the nature and the dynamics of the international system. Especially the territorial framework of the international system can be questioned. Some scholars speak of "the end of territory", but it can be assumed that the arrival of subnational entities on the international scene has, beside a process of deterritorialization, also started a dynamics of reterritorialization. Reterritorialization can be defined as "developments which occur when certain territorial entities loose their importance, in favor of other territorial configurations" . The central question entails the interaction between geopolitics and substate diplomacy. It will be examined in the case of the Mediterranean area. The central question is twofold; (1°) how and to what extent is the diplomacy of substate entities in this region "influenced" by environmental variables (e.g. physical-geography, human-geography, spatial setting), and (2°) how and to what extent do these actors re-shape their environment by means of their diplomacy? Or, to reformulate the latter dynamics: do the diplomatic activities of substate entities constitute motors of "reterritorialization"? These questions will be operationalized as follows: based on the research traditions and methods of traditional and cognitive geopolitics, the "influence" of geopolitical factors on the diplomacy of substate entities will be examined. A second (opposite) movement will start from the research tradition and methods of the critical geopolitics. The way in which substate entities try to redefine and restructure the space in which they operate by means of their diplomatic activities and foreign policy discourse, will be evaluated. The choice is made to apply this framework of substate diplomatic practices in a particular geographical area, namely the Mediterranean. During the last years, an increasing number of substate diplomatic initiatives have been taken in the Mediterranean, notably by the ambitious Catalan Generalitat.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Melissen Jan
• Co-promoter: Criekemans David

Research team(s)

• International Politics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the Flemish Public Service. UA provides the Flemish Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Feyter Koen
• Co-promoter: Cuyvers Ludo
• Co-promoter: Melissen Jan
• Co-promoter: Renard Robrecht
• Co-promoter: Velaers Jan

Research team(s)

• Law and Development

Project type(s)

• Research Project