FROM PARIAH TO PHOENIX: IMPROVING A NATIONAL REPUTATION FROM THE ASHES OF THE PAST By MATTHEW QUINN CLARY (Under the Direction of Brock Tessman) ABSTRACT Since the end of the Cold War, one of the most commonly cited threats to international stability and security has been the existence of pariah or rogue states who actively defy many of the rules and standards of behavior of international politics in an attempt to challenge the legitimacy and general functioning of the international system. Such states pose a significant challenge to the foreign policy of many nations as well as to international law and the organizations that are tasked with enforcing it, most notably the United Nations. While it is well known how such states become designated as pariahs, primarily due to their deviant behavior relative to global norms on things such as nuclear proliferation, human rights, or non-intervention into the internal affairs of other states, it is much less clear how they might be re-socialized into the international community short of a forced military intervention and regime change. What role might these states as well as those that interact with them on a regular basis play in reducing their deviant behavior and helping to improve their national reputations and the stigma and punishment associated with their pariah status? How are members of the international community to know when such nations enact meaningful attempts at removing their pariah designation? To answer these questions, this project proposes a theory of reputational improvement that combines elements of existing theories on reputation with aspects of a growing literature on nation branding and public diplomacy that will show how pariah states might go about improving their reputations and more importantly, convincing others that they are no longer deserving of the designation of being a deviant state. Through careful tracing of the reputational improvement process across three classic examples of pariah states, including South Africa under the Apartheid, Libya under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi, and North Korea under the rule of the Kim regime, this dissertation will show how some attempts at rebranding of a state from pariah to non-pariah are effective at inducing an improvement in national reputation, while others are unsuccessful at eliminating the pariah designation. In addressing this issue, this project adds value to the theoretical understanding of reputation as a public good and tool of public diplomacy as well as provides several policy prescriptions for how the international community might approach existing pariahs to promote their eventual re-socialization into global society. INDEX WORDS: national reputation, public diplomacy, nation branding, state behavior and rhetoric, credible signaling, global norms, pariah states, human rights, weapons of mass destruction, state-sponsored terrorism, Myanmar, South Africa, Libya, North Korea, Iran, process tracing FROM PARIAH TO PHOENIX: IMPROVING A NATIONAL REPUTATION FROM THE ASHES OF THE PAST By MATTHEW QUINN CLARY B.A., Furman University, 2006 M.A., University of Georgia, 2009 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2014 © 2014 Matthew Quinn Clary All Rights Reserved FROM PARIAH TO PHOENIX: IMPROVING A NATIONAL REPUTATION FROM THE ASHES OF THE PAST By MATTHEW QUINN CLARY Major Professor: Brock Tessman Committee: Loch K. Johnson Jeffrey D. Berejikian Andrew P. Owsiak Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to a great many people for the production of this dissertation and for my overall development as scholar and teacher of political science. First and foremost, I must thank my incredible wife, Virginia Sanders Clary, for her immense patience, understanding, and unwavering support for me during my graduate experience. This project would not be complete without her many ideas and constructive feedback that significantly contributed to it. I truly could not ask for a better partner to share my life and love of international affairs with. In addition, I would like to thank Brock Tessman for the support, insight, and feedback he has provided me as I worked on this project and the many that have come before it. His mentorship throughout my graduate career has been invaluable. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Loch Johnson, Jeffrey Berejikian, and Andrew Owsiak for their support and contributions to this dissertation. I am deeply grateful to the encouragement they provided in helping to shape and refine this project to what it is today. Additionally, I consider myself fortunate to have benefited from the support and advice from my family and friends. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Department of International Affairs for their friendship and support. Finally, I owe gratitude to the members of family, especially my parents, John and Cathy Clary, for always believing in me and their unconditional love and support. I can honestly say that I would never have finished this dissertation or my graduate career without the love and encouragement of everyone in my life. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................ IV LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ IX CHAPTER 1--INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 THE ARGUMENT IN BRIEF ....................................................................................................... 5 1.2 PROJECT STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2--REPUTATION AND THE ORIGINS OF THE PARIAH STATE ...................... 12 2.1 EXISTING PERSPECTIVES ON REPUTATION ............................................................................ 15 2.2 NATION BRANDING ............................................................................................................... 17 2.3 THE ORIGINS OF THE PARIAH STATE .................................................................................... 21 2.4 THE MAKING OF A PARIAH ................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 3--RISE OF THE PHOENIX: A THEORY OF REPUTATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION................................................................................................................... 40 3.1 WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY ................................................................................................ 41 3.2 COMPETING THEORIES ON REPUTATION ............................................................................... 50 3.3 A 'REBRANDING' STRATEGY FOR REPUTATIONAL IMPROVEMENT ........................................ 56 3.4 HYPOTHESES ........................................................................................................................ 66 3.5 CASE SELECTION .................................................................................................................. 67 3.6 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 68 v CHAPTER 4--SOUTH AFRICA (1946-1994) ............................................................................. 78 4.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 78 4.2 PRE-PARIAH STATUS ............................................................................................................ 80 4.3 DEVELOPMENT OF PARIAH STATUS ...................................................................................... 81 4.4 INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE AND TREATMENT ...................................................................... 91 4.5 OPPORTUNITIES FOR REPUTATIONAL IMPROVEMENT ........................................................... 97 4.6 REPUTATIONAL RECOVERY ................................................................................................ 110 CHAPTER 5--LIBYA (1973-2003) ........................................................................................... 119 5.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 119 5.2 PRE-PARIAH STATUS .......................................................................................................... 121 5.3 DEVELOPMENT OF PARIAH STATUS .................................................................................... 125 5.4 OPPORTUNITIES FOR REPUTATIONAL IMPROVEMENT ......................................................... 154 5. 5 REPUTATIONAL RECOVERY ............................................................................................... 161 CHAPTER 6--NORTH KOREA (1948-ONGOING) ................................................................ 171 6.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 171 6.2 PRE-PARIAH STATUS .........................................................................................................