Creating Good International Citizens: Middle Powers and Domestic Political Institutions
![handle is hein.journals/whith14 and id is 259 raw text is: Creating Good International Citizens:
Middle Powers and Domestic Political
Institutions
by Jeremy R. Youde and Tracy Hoffmann Slagter
Middle powers have been described as having a tendency to pursue multilateral
solutions to international problems, [the] tendency to embrace compromise
positions in international disputes, and [the] tendency to embrace notions of 'good
international citizenship' to guide diplomacy.i What motivates this type of
international behavior? It is our contention that middle powers earn their reputation
as good international citizens through social democratic domestic policies and, more
importantly, a social democratic identity. We demonstrate that middle power
governments are likely to have been cast in a European social democratic model, and
as such, these states are also likely to be leaders in matters tat emphasize the
collective over the individual. In foreign policy, this means that middle powers are
more likely to engage in relationships with other states that emphasize the collective
good and cooperation rather than act unilaterally and aggressively. As countries
around the world wrestle with large collective issues, such as climate change and
humanitarian intervention, middle powers will likely continue to serve as the
pragmatists of the international system.
This paper proceeds as follows: In the next section, we provide a discussion of
middle powers and their role in international relations, followed by an outline of
what a commitment to social democracy at the domestic level means. After that, we
connect domestic level social democratic identities to international foreign policy
behavior in the middle powers by examining the middle-power-inspired
Responsibility to Protect doctrine, an idea that has broken speed records in the
international normative arena.2
THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL: MIDDLE POWER
BEHAVIOR
What is distinctive about middle powers? In general, we can say tat middle
powers are distinguishable from other states in te system by their common
Jeremy R. Youde is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Tracy Hoffmann Slagter is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
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Seton HallJournal of Diplomay and International Relations](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/whith14&div=25&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Creating Good International Citizens: Middle Powers and Domestic Political Institutions
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