Moral authority and status in International Relations: Good states and the social dimension of status seeking. Issue 3 (5th December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wohlforth, William C.; de Carvalho, Benjamin; Leira, Halvard; Neumann, Iver B.
• Is Part Of: Review of international studies. Volume 44:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 526
• Page End: 546
• Publication Date: 2017-12-05
• Subjects: Status, -- Foreign Policy, Small and Middle Powers, -- Moral Authority, -- Good States, -- Norway; Mathematics -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 327
• DOI: 10.1017/S0260210517000560
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0260-2105

Abstract

Abstract: We develop scholarship on status in international politics by focusing on the social dimension of small and middle power status politics. This vantage opens a new window on the widely-discussed strategies social actors may use to maintain and enhance their status, showing how social creativity, mobility, and competition can all be system-supporting under some conditions. We extract lessons for other thorny issues in status research, notably questions concerning when, if ever, status is a good in itself; whether it must be a positional good; and how states measure it.