Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T13:21:52.048Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Foreign Military Presence and the Changing Practice of Sovereignty: A Pragmatist Explanation of Norm Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2014

SEBASTIAN SCHMIDT
SEBASTIAN SCHMIDT*
Affiliation:
The University of Chicago
*
Sebastian Schmidt is a Ph.D. candidate, Political Science Department, The University of Chicago, 5828 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (schmidts@uchicago.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increasing interest among international relations scholars in applications of pragmatist thought. Few works, however, have gone beyond discussing the epistemological and methodological implications of pragmatism. This article draws on a pragmatist understanding of human action to develop a novel explanation of norm change in contexts not amenable to more common analytical approaches. Specifically, concepts derived from pragmatism help explain how the creative recombination of practices by actors in response to changes in the material and social context of action can transform largely tacit notions of appropriate behavior. The article demonstrates the value of the approach by explaining the origin of a common contemporary security practice unknown prior to the Second World War and incompatible with the then-prevailing norms of sovereignty: the long-term, peacetime presence of one state's military on the territory of another equally sovereign state.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 108 , Issue 4 , November 2014 , pp. 817 - 829
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aboulafia, Mitchell. 1999. “A (neo) American in Paris: Bourdieu, Mead, and Pragmatism.” In Bourdieu: A Critical Reader, ed. Shusterman, Richard. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 153–74.Google Scholar
Adler, Emanuel, and Pouliot, Vincent. 2011. “International Practices.” International Theory 3 (1): 1–36.Google Scholar
Alexandroff, Alan, and Rosencrance, Richard. 1977. “Deterrence in 1939.” World Politics 29 (3): 404–24.Google Scholar
Bach, John. 1970. “The Maintenance of Royal Navy Vessels in the Pacific Ocean, 1825–1875.” The Mariner's Mirror 56: 259–74.Google Scholar
Baptiste, F. A. 1976. “The British Grant of Air and Naval Facilities to the United States in Trinidad, St. Lucia and Bermuda in 1939.” Caribbean Studies 16 (2): 5–43.Google Scholar
Barnes, Barry. 2001. “Practices as Collective Action.” In The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, eds. Schatzki, Theodore R., Cetina, Karin Knorr, and von Savigny, Eike. London: Routledge, 25–36.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael. 2009. “Evolution Without Progress? Humanitarianism in a World of Hurt.” International Organization 63 (40): 621–63.Google Scholar
Bevans Charles, I., ed. 1968. Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776–1949, Vols. 1–13. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Bhuta, Nehal. 2005. “The Antimonies of Transformative Occupation.” European Journal of International Law 16 (4): 721–40.Google Scholar
Biersteker, Thomas J., and Weber, Cynthia, eds. 1996. State Sovereignty as Social Construct. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohman, James. 1999. “Practical Reason and Cultural Constraint: Agency in Bourdieu's Theory of Practice.” In Bourdieu: A Critical Reader, ed. Shusterman, Richard. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 129–52.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Duncan. 1984. The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier: American Military Power in Britain. London: Michael Joseph.Google Scholar
Checkel, Jeffrey T., ed. 2005. “International Institutions and Socialization in Europe.” Special Issue of International Organization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conderman, Paul J. 2001. “Jurisdiction.” In The Handbook of the Law of Visiting Forces, ed. Fleck, Dieter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 99–158.Google Scholar
Converse, Elliott V. III. 2005. Circling the Earth: United States Plans for a Postwar Overseas Military Base System, 1942–1948. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press.Google Scholar
Cooley, Alexander, and Spruyt, Hendrik. 2009. Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cooley, Alexander. 2008. Base Politics: Democratic Change and the U.S. Military Overseas. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. 1988 [1922]. Human Nature and Conduct 1922, The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899–1924, Volume 14, ed. Boydston, JoAnn. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Documents on Canadian External Relations. http://www.international.gc.ca/history-histoire/documents-documents.aspx.Google Scholar
Doty, Roxanne Lynn. 1997. “Aporia: A Critical Exploration of the Agent-Structure Problematique in International Relations Theory.” European Journal of International Relations 3 (3): 365–92.Google Scholar
Duke, Simon, ed. 1993. U.S. Military Forces in Europe: The Early Years, 1945–1970. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change.” International Organization 52 (4): 887–917.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 2001. “Taking Stock: the Constructivist Research Program in International Relations and Comparative Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 4: 391–416.Google Scholar
Foreign Relations of the United States. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.Google Scholar
Franke, Ulrich, and Weber, Ralph. 2012. “At the Papini Hotel: On Pragmatism in the Study of International Relations.” European Journal of International Relations 18 (4): 669–91.Google Scholar
Friedrichs, Jorg, and Kratochwil, Friedrich. 2009. “On Acting and Knowing: How Pragmatism Can Advance International Relations Research and Methodology.” International Organization 63 (4): 701–31.Google Scholar
Gilpin, Robert. 1981. War and Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gronow, Antti. 2011. From Habits to Social Structures: Pragmatism and Contemporary Social Theory. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Halliday, Fred. 1999. Revolution and World Politics. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Harkavy, Robert E. 1982. Great Power Competition for Overseas Bases: The Geopolitics of Access Diplomacy. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Herrigel, Gary, Wittke, Volker, and Voskamp, Ulrich. 2013. “The Process of Chinese Manufacturing Upgrading: Transitioning from Unilateral to Recursive Mutual Learning Relations.” Global Strategy Journal 3: 109–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
High, Steven. 2009. Base Colonies in the Western Hemisphere, 1940–1967. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Höhn, Maria, and Moon, Seungsook, eds. 2010. Over There: Living with the U.S. Military Empire from World War Two to the Present. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Holsti, Kalevi. 1991. Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and International Order, 1648–1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holsti, Kalevi. 1996. The State, War, and the State of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hopf, Ted. 2010. “The Logic of Habit in International Relations.” European Journal of International Relations 16 (4): 539–61.Google Scholar
James, William, 1890. The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I. London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. Google Scholar
James, William. 1975 [1907]. Pragmatism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Joas, Hans, and Knöbl, Wolfgang. 2009. Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Joas, Hans. 1993. Pragmatism and Social Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Joas, Hans. 1996. The Creativity of Action. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J., and Sil, Rudra. 2010. “Analytic Eclecticism in the Study of World Politics: Reconfiguring Problems and Mechanisms across Research Traditions.” Perspectives on Politics 8 (2): 411–31.Google Scholar
Korman, Sharon. 1996. The Right of Conquest: The Acquisition of Territory by Force in International Law and Practice. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Kornprobst, Marcus. 2007. “Argumentation and Compromise: Ireland's Selection of the Territorial Status Quo Norm.” International Organization 61 (1): 69–98.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D. 2001. “Abiding Sovereignty.” International Political Science Review 22 (3): 229–51.Google Scholar
Kratochwil, Friedrich. 2011. “Making Sense of ‘‘International Practices’.” In International Practices, Adler, Emanuel and Pouliot, Vincent, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leffler, Melvyn. 1992. “Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War.” Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Livermore, Seward W. 1944. “American Naval-Base Policy in the Far East 1850-1914.” Pacific Historical Review 13 (2): 113–35.Google Scholar
Lundestad, Gier. 1986. “Empire by Invitation? The United States and Western Europe, 1945–1952.” Journal of Peace Research 23 (3): 263–77.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, Henry, and Temkin, Anatoly. 2012. “Russia Seeks Naval Bases in Cold War Allies Cuba, Vietnam.” Bloomberg Businessweek, July 27. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-27/russia-seeks-naval-supply-bases-in-cold-war-allies-cuba-vietnam Google Scholar
Merand, Frederic. 2010. “Pierre Bourdieu and the Birth of European Defense.” Security Studies 19 (2): 342–74.Google Scholar
Miettinen, Reijo. 2006. “Epistemology of Transformative Material Activity: John Dewey's Pragmatism and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 36:4: 389–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Jane K. 1951. Belgian Foreign Policy Between Two Wars, 1919–1940. New York: Bookman.Google Scholar
Neumann, Iver B. 2002. “Returning Practice to the Linguistic Turn: The case of Diplomacy.” Millennium 31 (3): 627–51.Google Scholar
Onuf, Nicholas G. 1989. World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina.Google Scholar
Orange, Vincent. 2004. Tedder: Quietly in Command. New York: Frank Cass.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peirce, Charles S. 1992 [1877]. “The Fixation of Belief.” In The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, Vol. 1. Houser, Nathan and Kloesel, Christian, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Peirce, Charles S. 1992 [1878]. “How to Make Our Ideas Clear.” In The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, Vol. 1. Houser, Nathan and Kloesel, Christian, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Pouliot, Vincent. 2008. “The Logic of Practicality: A Theory of Practice of Security Communities.” International Organization 62: 257–88.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary. 1992. Renewing Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ross, Steven T. 1988. American War Plans 1945–1950. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Sandars, Christopher T. 2000. America's Overseas Garrisons: The Leasehold Empire. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schatzki, Theodore R., Cetina, Karin Knorr, and von Savigny, Eike, eds. 2001. The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 2006 [1950]. The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum. New York: Telos Press.Google Scholar
Shusterman, Richard, ed. 1999. Bourdieu: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Google Scholar
Stambuk, George. 1963. American Military Forces Abroad. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Thevenot, Laurent. 2001. “Pragmatic Regimes Governing the Engagement with the World.” In The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, eds. Schatzki, Theodore R., Cetina, Karin Knorr, and von Savigny, Eike. London: Routledge, 56–73.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 1992. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1992. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress. 2005. Global Posture Review of United States Military Forces Stationed Overseas, Senate Hearing 108–854, September 23, 2004. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
United Kingdom Commons and Lords Hansard http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/.Google Scholar
United Kingdom. National Archives, CAB 131/6 Cabinet, Defence Committee: Minutes and Papers.Google Scholar
Wagner, Lynn M. 2008. Problem-solving and Bargaining in International Negotiations. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth N. 1979. Theory of International Politics. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Wiley, Norbert. 1994. The Semiotic Self. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Woodliffe, John. 1992. The Peacetime Use of Foreign Military Installations under Modern International Law. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.Google Scholar
Zacher, Mark W. 2001. “The Territorial Integrity Norm: International Boundaries and the Use of Force.” International Organization 55 (2): 215–50.Google Scholar