Role Theory in the Middle East and North Africa

Politics, Economics and Identity

Yasemin Akbaba, Özgür Özdamar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351661676
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Since December 2010, a series of uprisings, revolutions, coups and civil wars have shaken up the Middle East and North Africa region. In this chaotic political environment, several countries have been trying to influence this regional transformation. The implications of this transformation are of great importance for the region, its people and global politics.

Using a rich combination of primary and secondary sources, elite interviews and content analysis, Yasemin Akbaba and Özgür Özdamar apply role theory to analyze ideational (e.g. identity, religion) and material (e.g. security, economy) sources of national role conceptions in Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The authors take a closer look at the transformation of these four powers' foreign policies since the beginning of Arab uprisings, with a specific focus on religion. Each case study is written to a common template allowing for clear comparative analyses.

Written in a clear and accessible style, Role Theory in the Middle East and North Africa offers a thought provoking and pioneering insight into the usefulness of role theory in foreign policy making in the developing world. The perfect combination of theoretically oriented and empirically rich analysis make this volume an ideal resource for scholars and researchers of International Relations, Foreign Policy, Middle East Politics and International Security.

1

INTRODUCTION

Ambitious Roles in a Transforming MENA

A century ago, World War I brought an end to four hundred years of relative stability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the region was divided mostly between the Allied powers and local chieftains. Following World War II, the region has witnessed decolonization, independence movements, and problems associated with finding the right social order fitting the local populations. Secular nationalist movements of Turkey, Iran, and Egypt modernized their societies to some extent. With the growth of unmet social demands, the Cold War competition, regional political turmoil, and economic problems, MENA has witnessed the rise of political Islam as a strong challenger to mostly autocratic secularist regimes. These Islamist movements came to power through a revolution in Iran in 1979, via elections in Turkey and Algeria during the 1990s while they were harshly suppressed in other countries such as in Egypt.

After decades of autocratic rule and economic hardships, a small protest that began in Tunisia in December 2010 spread over the region in the spring of 2011. A series of loosely related protests, namely Arab uprisings, led to revolts, revolutions, coups, and civil wars since then. In this chaotic political environment there are four ambitious regional powers—Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey—that work hard towards influencing and surviving this transformation. Beyond the day-to-day power struggle, each of these four countries strives for impact by offering a ‘model’ that includes political, ideational, and economic solutions for the regional problems. Clues about what each state has to ‘offer’ are naturally reflected in their foreign policy role conceptualizations and actions.

This book focuses on the foreign policy aspect of this transformation as it aims to analyze foreign policy roles of the four major regional powers since the Arab Spring uprisings. We situate our work within the role theory framework. Role theory is a rare approach that can successfully synthesize both material and ideational factors shaping policy with a special focus on the agency. Theoretically we subscribe to the via media position that all foreign policy roles have both material and ideational sources and apply the role theory approach to analyze ideational and material national role conceptions of four major regional powers.¹

Role theory provides a viable tool to identify economic, political, and ideational sources of foreign policy conceptions and activities at the same time. Although there is a large literature on the MENA region, these studies focus mostly on historical and descriptive analysis of the region. There is a lack of theoretical and empirically rich studies on regional politics. On the other hand, North American-based role theory literature is criticized for neglecting the influence of ideational factors, more specifically the influence of religion. The absence of faith-based ideational sources of roles from role theory scholarship is particularly surprising, given the increasing role of religion in foreign policy analysis. Renewed attention to both role theory and religion in foreign policy analysis provides an opportunity to explore this uncharted territory where faith-based role conceptions emerge. By engaging religion in role theory framework, we propose a new way to look at both religion and role theory scholarship. By utilizing role theory to analyze the MENA, we provide a theoretically rich empirical analysis of the region.

This book argues that role theory successfully explains the foreign policy change and behavior of Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and also helps us locate faith in the broader regional dynamics. We use Breuning’s (2011) ‘cognitive model of agent-structure relationship’ informed by role theory to address the research questions.² The model places its emphasis on how ideational factors such as “domestic sources of identity and/or cultural heritage” (Breuning 2011: 26) and material aspects of international relations influence national role conceptions and how national role conceptions explain foreign policy behavior of states.³ In addition to taking into consideration material forces and ideational components, the model also “accommodates both domestic and international sources of national role conceptions by adopting a cognitive perspective: decision makers form their conceptions of their state’s role on the basis of both their understanding of the state’s identity and cultural heritage, and their perception of their state’s place and possibilities within the international system” (Breuning 2011: 26). Consistent with Holsti’s (1970) original national role conception definition, this model separates national role conceptions and actual foreign policy behavior.

Previous scholarship noted that religion can influence foreign policy through various means. However, expansion of role theory to faith-based role conceptions remained underdeveloped despite the increasing presence of religion-based rhetoric of decision makers. Understanding the role of religion in foreign policy analysis through faith-based role conceptions is a promising avenue for locating religion in a larger theoretical framework. It is also critical in understanding the regional transformation initiated by the Arab uprisings.

This study is driven by three sets of research questions. First, what are the foreign policy roles of these four states? What specific roles they propose regarding the region (regional roles)? Which of those regional roles are traditional, which of them are new? What do they implicate and what are the material and ideational sources of these regional roles? Second, we ask whether these roles cause a domestic debate at the state level or do all domestic actors accept them? By engaging the domestic debate in role formation we highlight the ‘role contestation’ scholarship. Third, we focus on whether these roles are accepted regionally and globally or if there is opposition to them from external actors. We highlight the role conflict hypothesis by focusing on a state’s foreign policy roles and whether regional actors accept these roles or not. Lastly, we focus on the Syrian civil war as a foreign policy case study that illuminates the given country’s foreign policy actions vis-à-vis the regional transformation. The dependent variable, foreign policy action, is explained by foreign policy role conceptualizations and their material and ideational sources. Syrian civil war part of each chapter evaluates the relationship between role conceptions and role enactment.

The case selection is informed by our readings and expertise about the region. Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey strive for influence and leadership in the region. Egypt has presented itself as natural leader of the Middle East since the early 1950s. A mixture of Arab nationalism and socialism constituted Egypt’s appeal in the region. Iran’s quest for regional influence in the last century was observed both before and after the Islamic revolution in 1979. Saudi Arabia has increased its influence on religious establishments and nongovernmental organizations in the region since the 1960s as well as through international organizations (IOs). Turkey, on the other hand, is rather a latecomer in terms of seeking for influence in the region. Following the Cold War Turkey has shown its first active involvement in the region during the Gulf War. The thaw of relations was observed during the 2000s whereas Turkey’s approach to the MENA has become contentious during the Arab uprisings.

Methodologically, we observe foreign policy role conceptualizations of these countries by using content analysis procedures and analyze cases with process tracing methods. Foreign policy roles are produced at the elite level. We analyze primary and secondary resources focusing on the ruling elite of these four prominent powers to depict role conceptualizations. Classical level of analysis in most role theory works is at the individual level. Role conceptualizations created by single individual leaders or groups of policy-makers have been the focus. This book also uses individual level as primary focus. Secondarily, our focus on the domestic debate and regional-global reactions to role conceptualizations by these four countries help us integrate all three levels of analysis. Therefore, this study integrates all three levels of analysis using roles as an analytical framework. The book has theoretical and empirical contributions, for it further tests the usefulness of role theory in the developing world foreign-policy making. Beyond theory, the book focuses on a very timely issue and strives to answer relevant questions about the region and world politics. The next two sections expand on two critical aspects of this study: role theory and faith in foreign policy analysis.

Role Theory

Role theory, borrowed from the field of sociology, was first used in the foreign policy analysis literature with the publication of K.J. Holsti’s (1970) seminal article “National Role Conceptions in the Study of Foreign Policy.” While Holsti’s article (1970) that introduced a typology of roles⁴ is considered to be an introduction of role theory to foreign policy analysis literature, Stephen Walker’s Role Theory and Foreign Policy Analysis (1987) “set the stage for further advances in both the foreign policy and international relations use of role theory” (Thies 2010: 6335). Following Holsti (1970) and Walker (1987), role theory scholars have produced various works that explore links between different countries’ role conceptions and these roles’ effects on their foreign policy.

Previous work on role theory identifies two broad sources of national roles: material and ideational. While material factors are about “a country’s age (time since independence or creation), size, location, economic condition (inclusive of developmental status), alliances, and its resulting relative power in the international system” (Below 2015: 28), ideational factors deal with history, cultural heritage, and national identity. Earlier research has sought to understand both role of material capabilities (Alden and Schoeman 2013, Chafetz et al. 1996, East 1973, Hey 2003, Thies 2010, 2013) and ideational factors (Aggestam 2004, Kaplowitz 1990, Hudson 1999, Sampson and Walker 1987) in foreign policy analysis with a heavier emphasis on the former especially due to influence of realism in IR scholarship. One particularly important, yet understudied ideational factor, is religion. By engaging religion in role theory framework, we propose a new way to look at both religion and role theory scholarship. Accordingly, this study aims to incorporate faith-based ideational factors to the study of national role conceptions in order to advance role theory scholarship and help to theorize role of religion in foreign policy analysis.

Faith and Foreign Policy in the MENA

While mostly historical and descriptive, analysis of the MENA region suggests religion is a prominent factor, but there is a lack of theoretical and empirically rich studies that examine faith’s influence on regional politics. Similarly, despite growing interest and insightful analysis, we still have limited understanding of religious actors and the role of religion in foreign policy analysis. More specifically, religion as an ideational concept is almost non-existent in role theory literature. We maintain that role theory allows us to integrate religion to foreign policy analysis by focusing on faith-based role conceptions.

Understanding role of religion in foreign policy analysis through faith-based role conceptions is a promising avenue for locating religion in a larger theoretical framework. To the best of our knowledge, only a few studies such as Ghose and James (2005) utilized faith-based role conceptions for foreign policy analysis. Similarly, there are not many studies that examine the Middle East through role theory, with the exception of a few such as Barnett’s (1993: 271) work on “the relationship between institutions, roles, and role conflict” in the Middle East. The recent book of Malici and Walker (2017) locates US–Iran relations in role conflict literature. Thies (2013) also analyzes the detailed foreign policy of Israel through role theory. However, none of these examine Arab and non-Arab actors with a specific focus on ideational sources of national role conceptions. This study aims to address this lacuna by integrating religion to ideational factors. Following in the footsteps of previous literature that examined ideational factors, we locate religion as an ideational source of national role conception. We suggest that examining faith-based role conceptions in the MENA regional context expands our understanding of the MENA and ideational factors within role theory scholarships. The MENA, especially, is a great place to conduct such analysis because the regimes in the region have developed a complex and diverse set of relations with religious actors. While in Saudi Arabia and Iran, faith is a critical element of governance, in Turkey and Egypt secular components are visible. Yet the role of clergy and the structure of religious institutions differ in Saudi Arabia and Iran. In the same vein, Turkey’s approach to Islam is far removed from Egypt.

Democratization proves to be a difficult process for the region as well. Much ink has been spilled to explain the “robustness of authoritarianism” (Bellin 2004) in the region. Unfortunately, the Arab Spring uprisings ushered in a cold ‘Arab Winter’⁵ rather than the long-overdue democratization process.

Although tempting, it is not possible to identify the regional transformation initiated by the Arab uprisings with a catch-all concept. Also it is rather difficult to pinpoint to a few outcomes. As a matter of fact, if anything the uprisings further complicated the political landscape of the MENA. Yet the implications of this transformation are of great importance for the region, its people, and for global politics. Three aspects of the transition dynamics appear to be critical for the purpose of this study. First, religion is an important determinant in regional politics. Islamist movements (and actors) are competing for political power. While some are pushed to the margins like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (Chapter 3), some expanded its political influence such as AKP in Turkey (Chapter 6). Saudi Arabia has been the champion of Sunni religious conservatism. However, as explained in Chapter 5, the proliferation of religious actors constitutes a challenge for the House of Saud as well. In addition, sectarian polarization is quite visible in the post-Arab uprisings era. Although Iran and Saudi Arab...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1. Introduction: Ambitious Roles in a Transforming MENA
• 2. Role Theory and Sources of National Role Conceptions: Material and Ideational Factors
• 3. Egypt and Secular Nationalism after a Century
• 4. Iran and Shia Revolutionism
• 5. Saudi Arabia and Religious Conservatism
• 6. Turkey’s Liberal Offer
• 7. Conclusion
• Index