Volume 100, Issue 5, September 2024

This introduction lays the theoretical groundwork for the special section on the effects of global populism. It proposes a framework that considers the diversity of populist governments and it addresses how the varying character of authoritarianism leads to different populist politics and international outcomes.

Employing narratives of realizing the ‘popular will’ or regaining ‘full sovereignty’, right-wing populist leaders in Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey have transformed foreign policy institutions and policy-making processes. Case-studies of these four states show how in each, the restructuring of foreign policy institutions has been achieved through a specific mix of (hyper)personalization and politicization.

How did the US foreign policy establishment react to Trump's populism? Employing the concept of political trauma, this article highlights the emotional aspects of anti-populism. Biden's uneven process of foreign policy normalization illustrates the elites' struggle to ‘wash away’ populist ‘ruptures’.

Rodrigo Duterte's foreign policy shifted the Philippines away from its traditional western-ally role. Duterte's populist securitization of the West as a liberal threat to national sovereignty reveals that populist performances can reorient established foreign policies, despite uncertainties about the sustainability of its outcomes.

This article debunks the widespread association of populism with far-right ideologies and foreign policies. Instead, populism is best understood as a political logic that articulates different policies as the will of ‘the people’, as left-wing populism in US and Spain illustrates.

Based on in-depth case-studies of populist and non-populist governments in Bolivia, India and the Philippines since 2002, this article examines the links between mobilization and personalization—both characteristics of populism—and foreign policy-making, revealing a nuanced picture of the conditions under which escalation occurs.

Is there a populist playbook when it comes to trade? Many populist leaders, including Donald Trump, have campaigned and won on protectionist platforms, while the Brexiteers in the United Kingdom were victorious following their advocacy of free trade. Despite these opposing preferences, we find a common logic in how populists articulate external relations.

What happens after a populist leader leaves office? This article shows that Donald Trump's populist narrative on US–China trade and protectionist policies have continued under the Biden administration. This analysis of populist legacies further points to the harmful effects of populist speech on state relations.

How has India's refugee policy been shaped by the populist project of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party? Drawing on the Laclauian idea of populism as a political logic, this article uses an intersectional framework to investigate the identity assemblages which have underscored the ‘otherness’ of the Rohingya.

What would a populist international order look like? Using examples of populist leadership in Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico, this article investigates the extent to which populists have addressed and embedded three proposed normative pillars of a PIO: small-scale multilateralism, selective embrace of the rule of law and anti-pluralism.

In emphasizing nationalism, popular sovereignty and identity politics, has populism fuelled a unilateralist backlash? This examination of four distinct types of institutional disengagement—criticism, obstruction, extortion and exit—reveals how right-wing populist governments in Hungary and the US balanced radicalism and pragmatism in foreign policy, shaping their disengagement through using these strategies flexibly.

While populists challenge international organizations, transformations of international institutions can constrain or even reverse this trend. Evidence from populist discourses in France, Italy and Spain, during four EU crises, shows that redistributionist and solidaristic forms of governance can soften the populists' sovereigntist impulses.

A re-examination of strategic ambiguity outlines the previously overlooked role of international norms and epistemic ambiguity to showcase the fragility of deliberately ambiguous foreign policies. This interplay is tested through an empirical analysis of US foreign policy and chemical warfare in Ukraine.

Using an innovative ‘balance of beliefs’ framework to examine the public discourse of key world leaders, the authors show that the likelihood of a peacetime military alliance between China and Russia lies in Putin and Xi's shared belief in strategizing to achieve political goals—despite sharp differences in their world-views.

Why do states persist in maintaining a foreign policy that is evidently failing? In the case of Canada's policy towards China, stasis ensued from a diplomatic crisis lasting four years. This article explains stasis as a function of policy content and discusses how, for Canada, change was facilitated by a process of institutionalized debate.

Combining Marxist theory with a strong emphasis on domestic politics, this article sheds light on the underlying social class relations of the emerging multipolar order. It illustrates the importance of combined capitalist development and its implications for policy-makers.

Does the future of peacebuilding lie in the adoption of a pragmatic approach, in contrast to the ambitious post-Cold War model which aimed to transform conflict societies into liberal democracies? This article weighs the options and challenges the assumptions underpinning pragmatist thinking on peacebuilding.

How are neo-liberals responding to the challenge of the radical right? According to this article, neo-liberal think tanks are apathetic towards the rise of radical conservatism. Moreover, their strategic and selective ignorance contrasts with their rigorous approach to left-wing ideas and governments.

Is China's approach to digital trade governance aligned with the interests of developing countries? This analysis of three different negotiations suggests that China leverages a dual identity, as a rising power and as a developing country, to promote strategic ambivalence and the interests of Chinese tech firms.

China's foreign diplomacy has shifted from the wolf warrior style of the mid-2010s towards a more conciliatory and cooperative approach. This policy paper charts this strategic shift, exploring its domestic and international drivers and offering policy recommendations for western democracies.

What will be the consequences for American foreign policy of the emergence of the New Right in the post-Trump era? This policy paper shows that the rise of national conservatism since 2021 and a corresponding institutionalization of the ‘natcon’ agenda will influence the foreign relations of future Republican administrations.