Role Conceptions in Sweden’s Foreign Policy: A Textual Analysis of the China-strategy
(2022) STVK02 20221Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- Research on Sweden’s foreign policy often highlights its exceptionalism regarding activism and value promotion. Yet, I detect a less idealistic side in its foreign policy towards China, characterized by a protection of national interests. In addition, contemporary trends of liberalization suggest an entirely different dimension as well. This paper seeks to better understand Sweden’s foreign policy through a case study of its China-strategy using role theory. It asks: Are there more than one role conception performed in Sweden’s China-strategy? If yes, which ones? With this purpose, the paper uses qualitative content analysis to test a hypothesis consisting of three role conceptions. The variety of the type of indicators identified in the... (More)
- Research on Sweden’s foreign policy often highlights its exceptionalism regarding activism and value promotion. Yet, I detect a less idealistic side in its foreign policy towards China, characterized by a protection of national interests. In addition, contemporary trends of liberalization suggest an entirely different dimension as well. This paper seeks to better understand Sweden’s foreign policy through a case study of its China-strategy using role theory. It asks: Are there more than one role conception performed in Sweden’s China-strategy? If yes, which ones? With this purpose, the paper uses qualitative content analysis to test a hypothesis consisting of three role conceptions. The variety of the type of indicators identified in the material allows me to draw a conclusion that yes, there are at least three role conceptions. One of them being the promoter of national interests, a role I not documented in previous research. I call this Sweden’s missing role and discuss possible explanations found in role theory. Further, I argue that co-existing roles causes issues for the implementation of foreign policy. One being the potential decline of Swedish exceptionalism in foreign policy. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9080299
- author
- Eriksson, Emma LU
- supervisor
-
- John Åberg LU
- organization
- course
- STVK02 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Role Theory, Foreign Policy Analysis, Sweden’s Foreign Policy, Sweden-China, Qualitative Content Analysis.
- language
- English
- id
- 9080299
- date added to LUP
- 2022-07-03 08:08:35
- date last changed
- 2022-07-03 08:08:35
@misc{9080299, abstract = {{Research on Sweden’s foreign policy often highlights its exceptionalism regarding activism and value promotion. Yet, I detect a less idealistic side in its foreign policy towards China, characterized by a protection of national interests. In addition, contemporary trends of liberalization suggest an entirely different dimension as well. This paper seeks to better understand Sweden’s foreign policy through a case study of its China-strategy using role theory. It asks: Are there more than one role conception performed in Sweden’s China-strategy? If yes, which ones? With this purpose, the paper uses qualitative content analysis to test a hypothesis consisting of three role conceptions. The variety of the type of indicators identified in the material allows me to draw a conclusion that yes, there are at least three role conceptions. One of them being the promoter of national interests, a role I not documented in previous research. I call this Sweden’s missing role and discuss possible explanations found in role theory. Further, I argue that co-existing roles causes issues for the implementation of foreign policy. One being the potential decline of Swedish exceptionalism in foreign policy.}}, author = {{Eriksson, Emma}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Role Conceptions in Sweden’s Foreign Policy: A Textual Analysis of the China-strategy}}, year = {{2022}}, }