Abstract
New Right actors are vocally seeking to change key international relations practices and institutions. We enquire how their philosophy of the international, which we call Reactionary Internationalism, is being socialised by a diverse group of international actors, including national governments and non-governmental actors. Engaging with English School conceptualisations of international society and deploying discursive analysis of diplomatic positions, we examine the diplomacy of New Right actors on issues of rights, the limits of sovereign power, and climate change. Through this empirical analysis it is demonstrated that opportunistic alliances between New Right politicians in democratic states, and authoritarian states such as China, are solidifying into an international compact that advocates radical normative change in international relations. This programme is centred on a new constitutive principle (birth-cultural sovereignty) and two new institutions (exclusive spheres of competence and transactionalism), that establish the terms of reference for a reactionary international society.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | International Relations |
| Volume | Online First |
| Early online date | 24 Jul 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 24 Jul 2023 |
Keywords
- English School
- International society
- New Right
- Reactionary internationalism
- Global politics
Access to Document
- Michelson_2023_IR_Reactionaryinternationale_CCBY
Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).