The Prestige Motive And Policy In International Relations

For a long time immaterial and irrational elements in the theoretical and actual research of international relations have been neglected for few reasons. In spite of its benefits for a scientific and concise theory, this cannot explain some of the important issues in international politics. The withdrawal of France from NATO in 1966 was one of them. Quitting NATO had brought France huge material cost and security risks, therefore traditional explanations based on material, power and security cannot fully explain this. Moreover, immaterial and irrational elements during the policy process need to be consider carefully. Therefore it is essential to go beyond traditional explanations and analyze the spiritual need and prestige motive in order to fully understand this foreign policy of France.Prestige, as an immaterial and irrational motive of human spirit is one of the three fundamental motives of humanity. This has been discussed by political theorists since ancient times. Thucydides, Plato, Machiavelli all treated prestige seeking as the goal of the states. Later Hobbes, Rousseau, Niebuhr and Weber also addressed the importance of prestige in political relations. However, prestige as a spiritual need had been rejected by rationalism since modern theories of international relations developed. Traditional values of prestige also declined as modern society focus more on desire and reason. Prestige then became the appendant of power, interest and security. The policy of prestige became the tool for seeking power.This article tries to build a theoretical framework of prestige motive, prestige seeking and the policy of prestige based on achievements of semantics, other subjects, traditional political theories and research of international relations. From the essence, prestige is not only a kind of spiritual motive existing universally in individual, community and state. It is also a confounding factor combining material and immaterial, rational and irrational elements in reality. The prestige motive varies from different individuals, communities and states in their magnitude and type of prestige motive. From the perspective of relations, prestige is the presentation and appearance of power, therefore prestige is a branch and the reputation of power. Seeking prestige is to seek power, therefore prestige seeking can both be a tool and the goal itself. From the deep side, prestige seeking is the seeking of recognition of prestige demands from others. Prestige demands comprise autonomy, self-esteem, sense of honor and superiority. Seeking prestige is to chase others’recognition to those demands. Therefore the essence of prestige seeking is the seeking of recognition, mainly reflected in the pursuit of independence, respect, honor, reputation and status. From external manifestation, prestigious policy starts from the pursuit of independence to respect, honor, reputation and then to status, forming a hierarchy level system from low to high.After the analysis of the prestige motive, pursuit and policy, this article tries to explain the French policy to withdrawal from NATO in 1966 with the analyzing framework of prestige. In fact, not only De Gaulle himself, but also French citizens, domestic society and international society in 1966 all had strong motives and demands of prestige. Those motivated anti-American emotions and prestige seeking behaviors of De Gaulle and France. Quitting NATO was a radical reaction and policy adjustment of France after the rejection of its prestige demands in NATO. It was also a continuous policy to seek prestige in a larger international level. Although the damage of material interest and deterioration of security situation made it unsuitable to the principle of rational decision, the independence and autonomy of France had been strengthened while self-esteem and respect had been defended against America. Also in international society France continuously accumulated honor and reputation of anti-American spirit, independence and support of liberation. This actually was in favor of the establishment of great power status of France. Therefore the withdrawal of France from NATO in 1966 was the behavior of prestige seeking motivated by the prestige motive. Seeking prestige was the end itself rather than the tool for France, even though this had caused irrational material cost and security risks. However, as a whole the policy was not totally irrational. It was the deliberate and limited prestige seeking behavior based on the prestige motive.