Role Conflicts And The Evolution Of International Norms

In the field of international politics,it is often observed that some international norms have been reversed.The initiators who advocated these international norms have become amenders or even revisionist of norms.For example,the United Kingdom denies the slave trade norms it has advocated for many years;the United States denies the whaling administration norms it advocated and reversed them to "whale protection" norms;in the 1970 s,President Nixon advocated the United Nations Declaration on the Human Environment and its norms;the United States signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992;during President Clinton's administration,in 1997,the United States entered the Kyoto Protocol.President Bush withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in March 2001.President Obama signed the Paris Agreement in 2015;and after President Trump took office,he withdrew in 2017.Such repeated treatment of the same norm,first advocating and then withdrawing,then joining and then withdrawing again,really shocked members of the international community.Moreover,modern Western countries based on the Westphalian sovereignty norms,advocated the principle of non-interference in internal affairs,but developed into "humanitarian intervention" in the 20 th century,and transformed to "the responsibility to protect" in nowadays.In fact,such a reversal from non-interference to conditional interference is often confusing.For example,the International Red Cross Society,since its inception,has pursued a norm of neutrality,but with the development of the institution and the change of donor sources,its norm has changed to one that meets the requirements of donors,which makes people wonder how such amendments and changes have taken place in its original norms.Therefore,this study raises a theoretical question: how can the entrepreneur of norms change into revisionists of norms?The author combs the normative research in the theory of international relations and finds that the academic circles have made fruitful achievements in the study of the life cycle,dissemination and evolution of norms.But why do the norm entrepreneurs deny the previously highly respected norms and why have the roles of norm entrepreneurs changed into the roles of norm revisionists? Reshaping the opposite norms,under what conditions does this role change take place? What kind of process has it gone through to promote the change of roles? The author has not found the relevant theoretical research.The author has also done a literature review on the international whaling research field.From the aspects of the changes of whaling administration system,whaling politics,global governance and cultural diversity,multi-angle empirical analyses have given their own answers to the transformation of the International Whaling Commission from a "whaling club" to a "whale protection committee",but those analyses have not yet answered the question: "why does the role change from norm entrepreneur to norm revisionist?" This unanswered question inspires the author's initial idea of verifying the theoretical hypothesis model of this study through the international whaling norms as an empirical case.This study is divided into two parts.The first part includes the first and second chapters,combing the role theory and its application,designing the model and hypothesis of the combination of role theory and international relations theory,and choosing specific discourse analysis methods.The second part includes the third,fourth and fifth chapters and conclusions.Using the theoretical model designed by the author,the author makes a case study of the origin,evolution and further development of international whaling norms,and finally draws a conclusion.The author holds that both "norm entrepreneur" and "norm revisionist" are the roles of the state,so from the perspective of sociological role theory,the author combs the concept and theory of the role in the discipline of sociology.The author finds that the role theory has been used to study the foreign policy of a country as early as the 1970 s,mainly from the micro level,to study the influence of the leaders' self-cognition of their country's position in the world on foreign policy.At the same time,it is believed that all countries in the international community have sovereignty,and the influence of domestic politics,culture and ideology on the foreign policy of a country is greater.This is not as sociologists believe that individuals in society are constrained by social norms and others' expectations,which are more influential to individuals.In addition to the role theory applied to foreign policy research,in the past decade,role theory has been applied by some scholars as a cross-border tool to integrate international relations theory and foreign policy research.The author also combs the study of social constructivism on role identity in the theory of international relations,and Wendt's thought,the main representative,enlightens the author greatly.Social constructivism regards the state as a human being,and classifies the state into category identity,role identity and collective identity.It is assumed that the role of foreign policy is a structural phenomenon.The role is both motivated and constrained by the structure,and the role and structure are mutually constructed.The analytical level of social constructivism is macroscopic and holistic.Based on the existing research results in the academic circles,the author believes that it is still impossible to answer the theoretical questions initially raised in this study,so she boldly proposes her own theoretical model.The main premises of the author's theoretical model are as follows: 1.The state is in the international community and is constrained by international norms;2.In the context and structure of the international community,the state has the identity of the state role,and the role and structure of the state are mutually constructed;3.In the normative study of international relations theory,this study focuses on the state angle when the internalization of norms is interrupted.Theoretic hypothesis is: 1.Role conflict always exists.When new and old roles change on time axis,role conflict will occur.When the same role has different expectations for different systems,role conflict will also occur.If two overlapping conflicts become more and more prominent,I call them "conflict activation points".2.Assuming that the role of foreign policy is a structural phenomenon,the role of the state is both motivated and constrained by the structure,and the role of the state and foreign policy are mutually constructed;3.Assuming that the co-construction of actors and structures is a complex interaction,this kind of interaction is represented by discourse conflict and practical conflict.Complex interaction promotes role change;4.Assuming that the norm reshaping requires conditions.Then the author puts forward a theoretical model: when the international order is in crisis,national role conflicts will be activated,leading to the mismatch between roles and identities,the complex interaction between state actors and the international community structure,through the conflict representation of discourse and practice,and promoting role change.Supported by strength and capability,state actors reshape international norms and realize their evolution.Extreme evolution of international norms includes completely denying the norms originally advocated by themselves.There is also the possibility that the old norms will be maintained if the role changes,but the national actors do not have enough strength and capacity.In this study,empirical case studies are used to verify the theoretical model of hypothesis,discourse analysis is used in specific methods,and analysis is carried out through the specific approaches of subjugated knowledge method and genealogy.The author chooses the evolution of international whaling norms as a case to validate the theoretical model.This case is relatively independent and complete.It can be observed comprehensively and completely from the perspective of genealogy.At the same time,the evolution of international whaling norms is a process of role conflict and transformation.It is also a complex interaction between state actors and foreign policy structure.It can be achieved through the conflict between dominant discourse and marginal discourse.Conflicts of practice can be represented and especially contrasted by subjugated knowledge method.The author chooses the evolution of international whaling norms as a case to validate the theoretical model.This case is relatively independent and complete.It can be observed comprehensively and completely from the perspective of genealogy.The case of this study,the International Whaling Norm,was advocated and established by the United States after World War II,mainly to conserve whale resource properly for the development of the whaling industry.By the end of the 1960 s,the International Whaling order was in crisis,the destructive reduction of whale resources and the surge of environmental protection movement led to the activation of the conflict of American national roles.Under the guidance of President Nixon's concept of environmental diplomacy,the role of the United States has changed into an anti-whaling nation,denying the original whaling norms,moratorium of commercial whaling,and reshaping the norms into "whale preservation",i.e.,from norm entrepreneurs to norm revisionists,and denying the norms of whaling.From the perspective of genealogy,this study will continue to observe the development of international whaling norms,which can still be used as a next stage case to verify the theoretical model.The "whale preservation" norm has played a role in the international whaling order for some time.However,in the 1990 s,when the "moratorium on commercial whaling" was reexamined,a new order crisis emerged,and the role of the United States was in conflict.The complex interaction between state actors and structures has never stopped,which continues to drive the change of roles.The conclusion of this study is that role theory,as a useful tool,can synthesize international relations theory with foreign policy research.Such a theoretical perspective can closely combine macro and micro,material and ideas,actors and structures,and theory and practice.State role conflict is activated in the crisis of order.Through the complex interaction between actors and structures represented by discourse conflicts,role change is enhanced.With the support of strength and ability,actor reshapes international norms.The norm entrepreneur becomes the norm revisionist,and the reversal of norms is the extreme situation in the evolution of norms.The whaling politics and diplomacy of the leading and marginal national roles involved in the case of international whaling norms evolution have enlightenment for China's environmental diplomacy.