Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Foreign ministries play a critical role in international relations and are the main interface of diplomacy. Yet, in international relations scholarship, foreign ministries are relatively neglected as an object of scholarly analysis and feature very little around discussions of state's agency an...

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Main Author: Loh, Dylan Ming Hui
Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145545
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1455452023-03-05T15:31:32Z Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Loh, Dylan Ming Hui School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Political science Foreign Ministries Habitus Foreign ministries play a critical role in international relations and are the main interface of diplomacy. Yet, in international relations scholarship, foreign ministries are relatively neglected as an object of scholarly analysis and feature very little around discussions of state's agency and identity. Using China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) as a foil, I suggest that foreign ministries develop dispositions, perceive the social world around them, and react to the world from these orientations. The implication of this, then, are that foreign ministries are contributive to a state's identity and “actorness.” In that way, I develop the concept of institutional habitus to understand China's MOFA and the ways in which this habitus is sustained and performed through MOFA's physical artefacts and its agents. This rendering of habitus responds to sociology's invitation to extend Bourdieu-inspired analysis toward organizations and organizational change and, more broadly, complements existing theorization of state identity by showcasing an important but omitted source of identity: the foreign ministry. I argue that China's MOFA's organizational habitus manifests and preserves itself through three means: first, through the iterative reinscription of institutional memory and invocation of history; second, through displays of fealty; and third, in organizational and personal self-regulation, discipline, and taciturnity. Accepted version 2020-12-28T04:42:32Z 2020-12-28T04:42:32Z 2019 Journal Article Loh, D. M. H. (2020). Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. International Studies Review, 22(4), 879-902. doi:10.1093/isr/viz051 1521-9488 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145545 10.1093/isr/viz051 4 22 879 902 en International Studies Review © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association. All rights reserved. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Political science
Foreign Ministries
Habitus
spellingShingle Social sciences::Political science
Foreign Ministries
Habitus
Loh, Dylan Ming Hui
Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
description Foreign ministries play a critical role in international relations and are the main interface of diplomacy. Yet, in international relations scholarship, foreign ministries are relatively neglected as an object of scholarly analysis and feature very little around discussions of state's agency and identity. Using China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) as a foil, I suggest that foreign ministries develop dispositions, perceive the social world around them, and react to the world from these orientations. The implication of this, then, are that foreign ministries are contributive to a state's identity and “actorness.” In that way, I develop the concept of institutional habitus to understand China's MOFA and the ways in which this habitus is sustained and performed through MOFA's physical artefacts and its agents. This rendering of habitus responds to sociology's invitation to extend Bourdieu-inspired analysis toward organizations and organizational change and, more broadly, complements existing theorization of state identity by showcasing an important but omitted source of identity: the foreign ministry. I argue that China's MOFA's organizational habitus manifests and preserves itself through three means: first, through the iterative reinscription of institutional memory and invocation of history; second, through displays of fealty; and third, in organizational and personal self-regulation, discipline, and taciturnity.
author2 School of Social Sciences
author_facet School of Social Sciences
Loh, Dylan Ming Hui
format Article
author Loh, Dylan Ming Hui
author_sort Loh, Dylan Ming Hui
title Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
title_short Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
title_full Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
title_fullStr Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
title_full_unstemmed Institutional habitus, state identity, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
title_sort institutional habitus, state identity, and china's ministry of foreign affairs
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145545
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