Reconstructing respect : the quest for prestige in the international system

Prestige is a term that appears in a wide range of international relations literature, but it is rarely ever defined. There is a vague consensus that prestige involves measures of status and respect, but its exact usage is different in every work. This thesis analyzes the various manifestations of prestige to develop a workable definition of the concept and then uses this definition to show how prestige plays a role in the major foreign policy decisions of states. This thesis argues that prestige motivations can overcome security concerns in some instances and cause a state to take an action that seems irrational. This is especially true if the state has recently suffered a severe drop in prestige, such as one incurred after losing a war, becoming isolated from the international community or facing state collapse. When such a dramatic loss occurs a state must take one of four paths to salvage its lost reputation: winning a war, becoming an economic power, taking the lead on an important political negotiation or developing nuclear weapons. This thesis uses two large case studies - Iran and Egypt - along with three smaller case surveys - France, Japan and Pakistan - to illustrate these four paths of status adjustment in action. It also presents a dataset of states that have suffered a severe loss in prestige to show how states can lose prestige and how they can gain it back.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Kacos, Samantha Anne

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Roger Petersen.

• Political Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68963

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/68963