Populist Foreign Policy and Mobilization in Bolivia

Authors

Abstract

The goal of this article is to explore the role of mobilization in the foreign policies of populists in power. To do so, we focus on the main features and changes of Bolivia’s foreign Policy under its populist president Evo Morales (2006-2019) with regard to its two most prominent conflictive bilateral relations, with the US and Chile. In both domains, Morales departed from the foreign policy of previous governments. By ending cooperation with the US, the Morales government sought to establish a sovereign counternarcotics policy in line with its core constituency’s demands of legalizing coca crops. On the key issue of relations with Chile seeking to negotiate a sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean, the Morales government exhibited more continuity initially. However, by referring the stalemated conflict to the International Court of Justice, Morales eventually changed his country’s approach to finding a resolution. Tracing Morales’ discourse over time reveals an intensification of populist as well as hostile rhetoric in periods of domestic political instability. Thus, our findings support the theoretical expectation of a particularly close link between domestic politics and foreign policy under populists in power. Thereby, populism may lead to a more conflictive foreign policy in some cases. However, neither does populist mobilization over foreign policy matters necessarily drive foreign policy change, nor does it preclude genuine bilateral dialogue.

Keywords:

populism, foreign policy, Bolivia, USA, Chile, Mobilization, coca

Author Biographies

Johannes Plagemann, German Institute for Global and Area Studies

Is research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg. He works on the intersection of International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Area Studies, often with a comparative angle to it. He currently co-directs two third-party funded research projects. In the project ‘Legitimate Multipolarity’, he and his colleagues explore the legitimacy of international institutions in the context of a multipolar distribution of power globally. In the project ‘Populism and Foreign Policy’, he and his colleagues investigate populism’s consequences for foreign policy and international affairs. He is the author of the monograph Cosmopolitanism in a Multipolar World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and has co-edited the book India Rising: A Multilayered Analysis of Ideas, Interests, and Institutions (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020). His work has been published in journals such as International Studies Review, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Review of International Studies, The Pacific Review, and Foreign Policy Analysis, amongst others.

Carlos Heras Rodríguez, El Colegio de México

Carlos Heras holds a MA in Political Science from El Colegio de México. As a researcher, he focuses on party politics and International Relations in Latin America. He is a junior researcher at Populism and International Relations project.

Sandra Destradi, University of Freiburg

Dr. Sandra Destradi holds the Chair of International Relations at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Previously, she was a Professor of International Relations and Regional Governance at the Helmut Schmidt University and a Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Her research interests include the impact of populism on foreign policy and international politics, issues of regional security, and the role of emerging powers in global governance. Together with Johannes Plagemann, she is the PI of the project ‘Populism and Foreign Policy’ (German Research Foundation, grant DE 1918/3-1), from which this article originated.