Fear and the Making of Foreign Policy: Europe and Beyond [Paperback]

This is a book about conflicts and fears: how domestic reasons are drawing countries in Europe into international events. Raymond Taras explains why France, Poland and Sweden have become engaged in outside conflicts and tells the story of when and why xenophobia at home is converted into xenophobia abroad.Can a society's fear of foreigners engender xenophobic foreign policy?

This is a book about conflicts and fears: how domestic reasons are drawing countries in Europe into international events. There has been much research into why the U.S. and U.K. militaries intervened in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflict zones. But what explains France's newfound international activism, which is taking its military to Libya, Mali and deeper into Africa? Why has Poland become deeply engaged in Ukraine's politics? Why is Sweden, which has not fought a war since 1814, concerned with the fierce internal wars in Iraq and Syria? Can these actions be explained as countries simply protecting their national interests, or has domestic xenophobia also be playing a part?

InFear and the Making of Foreign Policy, Raymond Taras explains the causal mechanisms propelling these three EU states to become engaged in outside conflicts and tells the story of when and why xenophobia at home is converted into xenophobia abroad.Acknowledgements

1. Fear and suspicion in contemporary politics
Meditation on fear
Fear across history
Cosmic and existential fears
Fear in philosophy
Ethics and fears
Eurocentrism
Fear from above, fear from below
Case studies
Conclusions

2. Reconnecting culture with foreign policy
Fear, culture, and foreign policy
Fear and domestic structures
Distinguishing domestic factors from the foreign
The cultural turn in foreign policy studies
Securitizing immigration
Fears and international fractiousness: Libya and Ukraine
Conclusions

ls-