Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.20901/an.18.11
Status Quo State: Universally Applicable or Historically Contingent Category?
Petar Popović
orcid.org/0000-0003-4770-004X
; Fakultet političkih znanosti, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
In recent years, the International Relations theoretical literature has made significant progress in expanding and refining the typology of revisionist states – states that seek to redistribute power in the international system and/or change the normative order. At the same time, little attention is paid to the notion of the status quo state, which denotes a state that strives to retain power and preserve the status quo. The category of status quo states is mainly reduced to either status quo bias referring to the states that have an aversion to risk in foreign policy decisions and do not actively participate in international politics or to the states that seek to survive in the anarchic system. At the same time, the literature overlooks the key aspect of the opposing categories: the conflict between the revisionist state and the status quo state. Namely, open rivalry with the revisionist state and aggressive resistance to change is regularly labeled as another form of revisionism. This paper shows that the category of the status quo state is not accidentally in the IR theoretical "blind spot". The reason for this is that the condition of its possibility – a consensual international legal order – is not present in modern circumstances. Historical experience shows that in certain and very rare conditions of a consensual international legal order, states with aggressive motives and often offensive means can be categorized as status quo states. It will be shown that in the modern age only two relatively short-lived international orders made the status quo possible: the European Westphalian system of balance of powers in the 18th century and the Cold War détente in the second half of the 20th century.
Ključne riječi
status quo; revisionism; state; realism; international order;
Hrčak ID:
266893
URI
Datum izdavanja:
13.12.2021.
Posjeta: 2.595 *