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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/87905 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Logics of Foreign Policy Discourse, Fantasy and Germany’s Policies in the Iraq Crisis Jakub Eberle Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Politics and International Studies University of Warwick August 2016 Table of Contents Acknowledgments 5 Declaration 7 Abstract 8 List of Abbreviations 9 List of Figures 10 1 | Introduction 11 Contributions 13 Outline of the thesis 15 2 | Sporadic encounters: Germany, foreign policy, discourse theory 21 German foreign policy 21 a) Dominant accounts of German foreign policy 23 b) Problems with the mainstream 26 Discursive poststructuralism and foreign policy 29 a) Initial explorers 30 b) Quasi-explanatory analysts 32 The Essex School and international studies 37 a) The promise of the Essex School 37 b) Echoes of Essex in International Relations 40 Conclusion 43 3 | The logics approach: Discourse, affect and critical explanation 44 Ontology: Discourse and affect together 45 a) Discourse and power 47 b) Subject 50 c) Dislocation and decision 53 Logics: Putting ontology to work 54 a) Social logics 56 b) Political logics 57 c) Fantasy and the fantasmatic logic 60 Epistemology: Critical explanation 64 a) Epistemological status of logics and the centrality of articulation 65 2 b) Retroductive circle 67 Conclusion 71 4 | Discourse theory and foreign policy: Foreign policy as articulatory practice 72 What is foreign policy 72 Practice, subjectivity, decisions and interactions 78 Discursive foreign policy analysis 81 Social logics of foreign policy 83 a) Logic of state sovereignty 85 b) Logic of international communities 86 c) Logic of peaceful resolution 88 Conclusion 90 5 | Research design, data and interpretation: Method as articulatory practice 91 Object of analysis and research questions 92 Data 95 Method and interpretation 98 a) Dual reading and construction of logics 99 b) Interviews 103 c) Images 106 Conclusion 108 6 | Problematisation: Inconsistent policies, emotional debates 110 1991-2001: Germany, America and Iraq before the ‘axis of evil’ 111 2002: Rhetorical confrontation and bilateral diplomacy 113 2003: Diplomatic showdown and the path to war 119 Carving out the problem 125 Conclusion 129 7 | Social logics and patterning of practices: Foreign policy at the intersection of multiple hegemonic logics 130 The ‘common sense’ of German foreign policy 131 a) Logic of state sovereignty 132 b) Logic of peaceful resolution 134 c) Logic of international communities 136 Before and beyond Iraq 138 From logics to policy 143 3 Conclusion 147 8 | Political logics and the meaning of ‘crisis’: Discursive struggles over foreign policy 149 Logic of equivalence 152 a) Anti-war project: ‘Make law, not war’ 153 b) Anti-isolation project: ‘Standing all alone’ 157 Logic of difference 161 Foreign policy in a ‘discursively disordered terrain’ 166 Conclusion 169 9 | Logic of fantasy and the desire for closure: The affectively disordered terrain of German foreign policy 172 Imperial crusade and Armageddon on the Tigris: Fantasising ‘American war’ 174 Ghosts of the past: Fantasising Germany’s ‘special path’ 183 Cannibal and monster: Fantasising Saddam 186 Foreign policy and the logic of fantasy 192 Conclusion 199 10 | Conclusion 201 Appendix | Data Selection 210 Texts 210 Interviews 212 Visuals 213 Bibliography 215 Literature 215 Documents 224 Visuals 235 a) Der Spiegel covers 235 b) Caricatures 235 c) Photographs 236 List of interviews 238 4 Acknowledgments Metaphorically and literally, this dissertation is the result of a journey. The research process took me to previously unknown intellectual territories. After four years, I still find them fascinating and often even more challenging to navigate than when I started. Geographically speaking, the text is assembled from parts written in Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic, more specifically in the cities of Coventry, Leamington Spa, Berlin, Prague, Kladno, Brno and Sušice. This journey would not have been possible without the support of a number of colleagues, friends, family members and institutions. Most of the work was conducted in and around the Department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick. Unsurprisingly, the most I owe to my supervisors. With his attention to detail and intellectual curiosity, Chris Browning taught me to put extra thought into every single sentence and turned our meetings into lively and engaging discussions. Stuart Croft was the big picture person, always pushing me to clarify my key arguments. A number of other members of the department commented on parts of my work or offered encouragement, in particular James Brasset, André Broome, Alex Homolar and Nick Vaughan-Williams. The encouragements and suggestions of Jason Glynos and Yannis Stavrakakis during their visits to Warwick and our subsequent email conversations helped me in dealing with the often complex thought of the Essex School. The whole experience of doing a PhD in Britain would not have been worth much without fellow students and friends, above all Dženeta Karabegović, Bahadir Celiktemur, Rogan Collins, Bahar Baser, Tereza Jermanová, Roberta Mulas, Nikita Shah and Lauren Tooker. Crucially, the thesis could not have been completed without the support of the University of Warwick Chancellor’s Scholarship. The empirical research would have been much more difficult without the support of the Center for Transnational Studies, Foreign- and Security Policy (ATASP), Free University, Berlin, which hosted me for three months in 2014 (and again in 2016, when I was working on a different project, but also completing the dissertation at the same time). I am particularly grateful to Ingo Peters, Matthias Ecker-Erhard, Tobias Berger and Simon Koschut. They contributed not only with their intellectual input, but also made me feel at home. Anneke Hudalla, Volker Weichsel and Marcela Masiarik helped me with arranging the interviews. I am thankful to all the respondents who took some of their precious time to talk to me, as well as to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for funding my stay. 5 Substantial part of the work was done during my retreats to the Czech Republic, where I could rely on the love and support of those closest to me. My family has supported me throughout my whole life. My friends have consistently turned my attention to non-academic matters, for better or worse. Last but certainly not least, Gábi has all too often taken the fallout when the work was not going well. To all of them I am infinitely grateful. 6 Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own work and that it has not been submitted for a degree at another university. The thesis contains no work published elsewhere. 7 Abstract The thesis develops a discourse-theoretical framework for foreign policy analysis and utilises it to account for Germany’s policies in the Iraq crisis of 2002/2003. Germany’s response was deeply contradictory, as it included rhetorical opposition to the war and diplomatic activities aiming at blocking it, but also tacit and indirect cooperation with the United States that made the war possible. Intriguingly, such policies were pursued against the background of an existential and emotional discourse, which portrayed Germany’s very identities as at stake. This intersection of affectivity and contradictoriness presents the research problem of the thesis. To address it, the dissertation revisits the concepts of discourse, subjectivity and foreign policy. Building on poststructuralist and psychoanalytical impulses, it argues that the focus on discursivity should be complemented with a deeper analysis of affect. The subject is reconceptualised as incomplete and split; not only between her different identities, but also between her discursive and affective sides. Foreign policy is then understood as an articulatory practice through which subjects attempt to recapture their identity, a process that is strongly affective and ultimately futile. These arguments are operationalised with the help of three sets of logics: social logics, which capture sedimented aspects of social reality; political logics, which focus on contestation of orders and symbolic reconstruction of political spaces; and the logic of fantasy, which accounts for the subjects’ attachment to sociopolitical orders. After discussing methodological problems, the dissertation turns to the empirical study of Germany’s policies in the Iraq crises, which is structured around the three types of logics. The key conclusion is that Germany’s policymakers operated in a discursively and affectively disordered terrain, in which their own subjectivities were split between different identities, principles and expectations. They were unable to resolve these dilemmas, because, at the same time, multiple of the contradictory identities and policy options were underpinned by strong affective investment, which made it virtually impossible to choose an unequivocal course of action. This inability also functioned as a reminder of the failure to secure a stable and complete

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