ALT Title: Managing Role Conflict on the International Stage: How China Balances Its Dual Role in Global Climate Governance Abstract: China has traditionally served as a leader of the Global South in global climate governance, building on its self-identification as a developing country. As expectations rose to contribute more resolutely to global climate action, China found itself confronted with a role conflict. Creating the auxiliary role of climate leader has not resolved this conflict, since the two roles are essentially associated with conflictual expectations. In this paper, I demonstrate how China sustains its dual role by employing three discursive tactics to balance the conflict: role segregation, role supplementation, and role merging. For this purpose, I develop and apply a theoretical framework of role conflict management strategies and associated tactics in foreign policy and international relations.

ALT Title: Offense–Defense Balance and Sanctions Backfire: A Theory of US Sanctions Doctrines Abstract: The United States increasingly treats economic sanctions as a tool of first resort, yet existing scholarship has not fully explained why sanctions policy varies sharply across presidential administrations. This article argues that such variation stems from leaders’ causal beliefs about two sanctions-specific factors: the offense–defense balance of economic sanctions and the risk of sanctions backfire. I introduce the concept of a sanctions doctrine—a subcomponent of grand strategy that structures how states design and employ economic coercion—and develop a typology linking four prominent US grand strategies—Liberal Internationalism, Conservative Primacy, Deep Engagement, and Restraint—to distinct sanctions doctrines. While grand strategies define broad strategic aims, leaders’ causal beliefs explain variation in sanctions activism and doctrinal divergence in practice.

ALT Title: With Friends Like These: The Impact of US Troop Deployments on Economic Sanctions Busting Abstract: The deployment of US troops and the maintenance of US bases abroad is a manifestation of the commitments of both the United States and its partners to their security alliance. Does security cooperation lead to greater compliance with US sanctions regimes? Our research explores trade-based sanctions busting from 1990 to 2018 to understand whether the magnitude of the US military’s presence impacts the propensity of a host nation to bust US sanctions and the magnitude of sanctions-busting trade exchanged. Using the Global Sanctions Database and US global military deployments data (1990–2018), we argue that larger and long-term deployments both reduce the probability of trade-based sanctions busting and lessen the magnitude of sanctions-busting trade for states with defense pacts with the United States...

ALT Title: Scapegoating Your Ally: How Leaders Deflect Audience Costs by Blaming Allies for Not Supporting Them in International Crises

ALT Title: Domestic Power Consolidation, Leader Survival, and Chinese High-level Visits