The Dissertation revolves around two research problems: the lack of studies conceptualizing and operationalizing the ideology in foreign policy and the lacuna in comprehending the political ideology in foreign policy of Yugoslavia and countries in its pre- and post-stadium. The theoretical approach is grounded in the critical constructivist International Relations (IR) school and post-structuralist thought, which empowers the research to come up with the holistic ontological and post-positivist epistemological perspective on ideology in foreign policy. The Dissertation establishes the novel conceptual and operational framework that situates ideology in foreign policy decision-making process under norms and values of a foreign policy carrier, and introduces the verifiable operationalization scheme for identifying and mapping the impact of political ideologies on foreign policy. The Dissertation offers the set of idiosyncratic characteristics of three political ideologies ¬– ethno-nationalism, communism and liberal democracy – in foreign policy. The Dissertation’s capital empirical contribution is a disclosure of the presence and impact of political ideologies on the foreign policy content and process of selected states, analyzed via discourse analysis in three case studies: first, the process of creation of South Slavic state (Pre-Yugoslav Montenegro and Serbia); second, the split from Cominform and creating the Non-Aligned Movement (Yugoslavia); and third, the European Union accession process (post-Yugoslav Serbia, Kosovo, Slovenia and Croatia). The research determines that political ideologies exercise an impact on the process of determining foreign policy objectives, interpreting a broad foreign policy context and mobilizing members of the political community to pledge support for country’s international endeavors. Yet, this impact is not unconditional as ideology can impact foreign policy objectives conflictual to norms, leading to pragmatism in foreign policy. Findings determine that a political ideology does not exercise an impact on foreign policy actions, rather it plays a role in domestic norms and objectives. The Dissertation also establishes that the presence and alterations of a certain political ideology is contingent upon processes in the international environment that propel a readjustment of foreign policy content and process, as well as upon the audience of employed foreign policy discursive practices.
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