Role Theory and International Relations
About the Book Series
Advisory Board: Marijke Breuning (University of North Texas), Sebastian Harnisch (University of Heidelberg), Valerie Hudson (Texas A & M University), Paul Kowert (Florida International University), Stephen G. Walker (Arizona State University).
The Role Theory and International Relations Series aspires to attract and publish the latest and best research integrating knowledge in the field of International Relations with role theory. This aspiration cuts across a wide swath of subfields, including foreign policy analysis, peace and security studies, international political economy, diplomatic studies, and international organization. While each of these subfields of study is presently organized as an "island of theory," this series intends to integrate their signature phenomena within a system of knowledge, a "theory complex" or an alliance among different subfields. This series showcases the ability of role theory to generate useful theoretical insights on its own or in combination with existing theories across these traditional subfields. Role theory’s conceptual repertoire, plus its ability to span multiple levels of analyses and the major meta-theoretical divides in the discipline position it to be an important integrative force in the study of International Relations.
China and Climate Leadership: A Role Theory Analysis
1st Edition
By Kim Vender
July 30, 2025
In this book, Kim Vender examines China’s leadership in climate change governance. International climate change negotiations were supposed to achieve an agreement at two summits: in 2009 in Copenhagen and again in 2015 in Paris. China’s part in the negotiations has elicited a narrative of ‘...
National Role Conception and Neoclassical Realism: A Synthetic Exploration of the Sino-Soviet Alignment
1st Edition
By Guangyi Pan
June 26, 2025
Despite China’s alignment with Russia being one of the most significant factors shaping the international order, the dynamics of their historic relationships and, more importantly, the sources of China’s alignment policy remain underexplored. In this book, National Role Conception and Neoclassical ...
Role Theory and Mexico's Foreign Policy: Making Sense of Mexico’s Place in World Politics
1st Edition
By Omar A. Loera-González
January 30, 2025
Role Theory and Mexico’s Foreign Policy examines why Mexico has an unusual foreign policy for a middle-power country. Using a series of case studies to show how role conflict has operated in Mexico’s foreign policy, Omar Loera-González studies three specific settings where Mexico could have ...
Two-Level Role Theory and EU Migration: Negotiations with the Visegrad Group
1st Edition
By Magdalena Kozub-Karkut
December 02, 2024
Applying role theory and Putnam’s two-level game framework to the European migration crisis of 2015, Magdalena Kozub-Karkut expertly shows how the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland used the crisis to contest their roles in the European Union (EU) and how each country and the V4, as a ...
Brazil's International Activism: Roles of an Emerging Middle Power
1st Edition
By Monika Sawicka
November 28, 2024
In Brazil’s International Activism Monika Sawicka questions how Brazil’s deep-rooted craving for greatness has led to the quest for status in the twenty-first century and contends that the categorization of Brazil as an “emerging middle power” enriches the understanding of modern Brazilian foreign ...
Disaggregating Diasporas as a Force in Role Contestation: Mobilising the Marginalised in Foreign Affairs
1st Edition
By Matthew K. Godwin
May 27, 2024
Using a Role Theory lens, this book investigates Tamil diaspora mass movements and interest groups as marginalised forces of domestic foreign policy influence. Until now Role Theory has not considered diaspora mass movements as collective action actors, nor looked at how marginalised diasporas ...
Role Theory and Russian Foreign Policy: Rolling Changes in National Role Conceptions
1st Edition
By Damian Strycharz
January 29, 2024
Despite the increased interest in Russia and its international behaviour, current analyses leave much unexplained. Damian Strycharz fills this gap in the literature by analysing leaders’ perceptions and the interactions between internal and external factors shaping foreign policy decisions. ...
National Role Conceptions in a New Millennium: Defining a Place in a Changing World
1st Edition
Edited
By Michael Grossman, Francis Schortgen, Gordon M. Friedrichs
September 25, 2023
National Role Conceptions in a New Millennium examines the transformation of the international system through an examination of the role conceptions adopted by the different global actors. Advancing current role theory scholarship in International Relations, the contributors take as their starting ...
Role Compatibility as Socialization: The Case of Pakistan
1st Edition
By Dorothée Vandamme
September 25, 2023
In Role Compatibility as Socialization, Dorothée Vandamme examines Pakistan’s socialization process in terms of role compatibility in the 2008-2018 period. Adopting an Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) method of analysis, Vandamme builds on role theory to develop a theory of ...
Role Theory, Environmental Politics, and Learning in International Relations: The Case of the Arctic Region
1st Edition
By Sandra Engstrand
May 31, 2023
In this book, Sandra Engstrand uses role theory to study learning processes in environmental policy negotiations in the Arctic Council. Owing to rapid ice-melting in the Arctic region, and more accessible commercial opportunities, there is a greater need for environmental protection. However, large...
U.S. Global Leadership Role and Domestic Polarization: A Role Theory Approach
1st Edition
By Gordon M. Friedrichs
April 29, 2022
In this book Gordon Friedrichs offers a pioneering insight into the implications of domestic polarization for U.S. foreign policymaking and the exercise of America’s international leadership role. Through a mixed-method design and a rich dataset consisting of polarization data, congressional ...
A Theory of Master Role Transition: Small Powers Shaping Regional Hegemons
1st Edition
By Feliciano de Sá Guimarães
February 01, 2022
In this book, Feliciano de Sá Guimarães offers an original application of Role Theory. He proposes a theory of master role transitions to explain how small powers can change regional powers’ master roles without changing the regional material power distribution.Master role transition is the ...