‘Dancing among elephants’ : framing the rise of Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey (2000-2015) by applying analytic eclecticism to the concept of pivot state
type: CreativeWork
description: The rise of emerging powers in our contemporary world has sparked significant research interest. While the rise of the main ‘emerging powers’ – which are collectively referred to as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) – has attracted the attention of many scholars, the rest of the emerging powers are still very much understudied. There is a trend of generalisation in the study of emerging powers whereby countries such as Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey are overlooked because their material capabilities are less than those of the BRIC countries. The lack of sufficient academic investigation of countries outside BRIC has made our understanding of current power shifts incomplete, because despite their smaller size, these non-BRIC emerging powers are a substantial element of the international system. This thesis proposes the use of a ‘pivot state’ conceptual framework to characterise non-BRIC emerging powers. As explained in chapter 3, three criteria to identify pivot states are introduced: (1) attitude towards the international order, (2) performed role, and (3) nexus between regional and global contexts. Pivot states are able to maintain a level of influence at the global level by carving out niches for themselves in areas in which they possess expertise, resources and reputation and through which they typically operate within a multilateral and institutionalised setting. Pivot states’ behaviours are framed in the theoretical construction of pivoting behaviours: (1) soft-revisionist, (2) normative bridge-builder, and (3) accommodative regional leadership. An investigation of three countries (Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey) presented via three thematic case studies – (1) states of concern, (2) climate change and (3) global economic governance and the G20 in chapters 5, 6, and 7 tests for the presence in these states of pivoting behaviours. From the exploration in these chapters, it is concluded that the three countries have displayed some elements of pivot st…
abstract: The rise of emerging powers in our contemporary world has sparked significant research interest. While the rise of the main ‘emerging powers’ – which are collectively referred to as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) – has attracted the attention of many scholars, the rest of the emerging powers are still very much understudied. There is a trend of generalisation in the study of emerging powers whereby countries such as Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey are overlooked because their material capabilities are less than those of the BRIC countries. The lack of sufficient academic investigation of countries outside BRIC has made our understanding of current power shifts incomplete, because despite their smaller size, these non-BRIC emerging powers are a substantial element of the international system. This thesis proposes the use of a ‘pivot state’ conceptual framework to characterise non-BRIC emerging powers. As explained in chapter 3, three criteria to identify pivot states are introduced: (1) attitude towards the international order, (2) performed role, and (3) nexus between regional and global contexts. Pivot states are able to maintain a level of influence at the global level by carving out niches for themselves in areas in which they possess expertise, resources and reputation and through which they typically operate within a multilateral and institutionalised setting. Pivot states’ behaviours are framed in the theoretical construction of pivoting behaviours: (1) soft-revisionist, (2) normative bridge-builder, and (3) accommodative regional leadership. An investigation of three countries (Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey) presented via three thematic case studies – (1) states of concern, (2) climate change and (3) global economic governance and the G20 in chapters 5, 6, and 7 tests for the presence in these states of pivoting behaviours. From the exploration in these chapters, it is concluded that the three countries have displayed some elements of pivot st…
author: Santikajaya, Awidya
language: en
keywords: emerging power, analytic eclecticism, pivot state, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, G20, climate change
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:24Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/112470