Projekt

The study adopts an eclectic conceptualization of the interplay of domestic politics and foreign policy. It builds on a set of classic Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) theories brought together in an integrative framework of 3-i: ideas, interests and institutions. Within the FPA literature each of the "i"s feature as central social phenomena within distinct research programmes. In this research these three concepts are treated as related and concurrent dimensions of domestic politics: elite ideas, regime interests and policy-making institutions. Together, the tripod of ideas, interests and institutions offers an analytical shortcut to assess developments in domestic political environment within which foreign policy is produced. The research seeks to make a three-fold contribution to the regional foreign policy literature. First, it seeks to offer an integrated domestic-external account for major international developments in the region, involving ever-dynamic relations with China, Russia, the European Union and the USA. Second, the research advances a multicausal account of foreign policy, building on but also going beyond "single-cause" approaches prominent in the area literature. Third, and related to above, this study seeks to demonstrate that smaller post-Soviet states can be studied as "normal" polities whose foreign policy analyses need not to be driven by an essentialization of their size, location or idiosyncrasies of leaders and political regimes.

• Prof. Dr. Christoph Schuck

  Technische Universität Dortmund
  Fakultät 14 - Humanwissenschaften und Theologie
  Institut für Philosophie und Politikwissenschaft
  Dortmund
  

• Shairbek Dzhuraev

  OSCE Academy
  Associate Research Fellow Programme
  Associate Research Fellow Programme
  Bishkek
  Kirgisistan