Nativist-populism,the internet and the geopolitics of indigenous diaspora

The increasing influence of nativist-populism across Europe has provoked public and scholarly debate in recent years, to which political geographers are well placed to contribute. This article synthesises recent work on popular geopolitics and the geopolitics of diaspora to analyse the ways that the MAK-Anavad (the Kabyle government-in-exile) positions itself politically through both reactionary nativism and progressive indigenism. The politics of diaspora, indigeneity and nativism share some common discursive traits relating to territory and belonging, though their starting points and political effects are different. This article outlines and explains the ways the MAK-Anavad's discourse articulates with the nativist-populism of the French Right, arguing that this is possible because of its diasporic situation, colonial history, and a common discourse of anti-Islamism. Online social media, an important new field for the study of popular geopolitics, is argued to offer a key political opportunity structure for the MAK-Anavad and to privilege a populist communication style.     

How Chinese scholars think about Chinese foreign policy

China’s assertive diplomacy in recent years has ignited intense debates among international relations (IR) scholars. Some argue that China’s assertive behaviour is rooted in its perception of increasing power and capabilities. Others suggest that it is US policies that triggered China’s assertive reactions. Relying on an original survey of China’s IR scholars conducted in Beijing in 2013 and using structural equation modelling, we empirically examine Chinese IR scholars’ attitude towards Chinese power versus the United States, their perceptions of US policy in Asia, and their preference for an assertive Chinese foreign policy. We find that both the power perception and policy reaction arguments make sense in accounting for Chinese IR scholars’ attitude regarding China’s assertive diplomacy. However, our research suggests that a more pessimistic view on Chinese power is more likely to be associated with a preference for an assertive foreign policy.     

Popular geopolitics and political memoir: Geopolitical expertise and force majeure as foreign policy justifications in Tony Blair's A Journey

Political memoirs are not only popular with a general readership, they can also be useful historical source material. The place, form and function of geopolitics within them have been seldom explored, especially in the context of critical geopolitics. This article redresses this balance by arguing that geopolitics is a crucial salient in representations of foreign policy in that it is both a marker of expertise, power and authority, and an effective force majeure, allowing memoirists to depict constraints on action. These conclusions are reached through a theorisation of the form of memoirs in the light of recent innovations in popular geopolitics, in which I propose that they be studied via socio-discursive and fictive categories, in order to discern modes of representation and interactions with audience in justifying and explaining controversial foreign policies. The case study which demonstrates this concerns former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s, 2010 memoir, A Journey, a paradigmatic text in terms of how geopolitics functions in the above modes, particularly in his representations of globalisation, the War on Terror and the UK's relationships with the USA and Europe. By bringing together approaches from popular geopolitics and discursive theories of memoirs, I am able to make an original contribution that highlights the importance of political space within one particular and popular literary form and how this is used to justify past foreign policies.     

Water, technology, and the courtroom: negotiating reclamation policy in territorial New Mexico

Historical investigation of arid landscapes and communities in the American West has long focused on the pivotal influence of federal reclamation policy, typically characterizing its implementation as the application of scientific and technological methods to a variety of water resource management issues. This paper departs from traditional views of reclamation by highlighting the highly variable and contingent ways in which new science-based forms of water management were proposed and negotiated in specific local places with particular cultural, legal, and historical geographies. Drawing theoretically from literature on the ‘geography of science,’ the paper probes the ways in which authority for a scientific approach to water management was created, negotiated, and expressed in local and regional contexts in the Territory of New Mexico, where authoritative systems of practical resource use and administration had been in long use before the U.S. government initiated its federal water reclamation program in 1902. Specifically, the paper examines two disputes entered and argued in front of northern New Mexico’s Rio Arriba District Dourt between 1903 and 1905. By departing from the geographical and scalar perspectives typically applied to environmental histories of the West and its reclamation landscapes, this ‘microgeographical’ approach promises a fresh perspective that emphasizes the highly contingent ways in which science-based water policy was implemented in multiple and complex environments.     

Perspectives on Australian foreign policy, 2005

The year 2005 was notable for the Howard government's embrace of China. Spectacular resource deals were accompanied by the government's optimistic public declarations that China's rise could be accommodated in the current Asia–Pacific power structure. Alliance relations, which were the cornerstone of the Howard government's foreign policy, were boosted further by the decision to strengthen the Australian Defence Force's capacity to contribute to future US operations. The central challenge for this government arising from its decision-making in 2005 was to manage both major power relations in tandem. This was a year where the connection between international policy and domestic issues stood in stark relief. Terrorism concerns provided the context for the government's foreign policy but it also drove stringent domestic legislation. Australia's relationship with Indonesia improved but the commitment to Iraq remained problematic. Not the least of these difficulties stemmed from the exposure of the Australian Wheat Board's corporate dealings in Iraq which had operated counter to the government's international policy.