How States Punch above Their Weight: Introducing Hybrid Actorness as Expanded Foreign Policy

Abstract

The interplay of states and transnational actors has found its way into Foreign Policy Analysis. At the same time, the call for new typologies of foreign policy actors has increased. We therefore develop a typological theory of expanded foreign policy and introduce a model of hybrid actorness that alludes to foreign policy actors with both state and transnational dimensions in their polity, politics, and policy. We assume that the transnational element is constitutive of such foreign policy actors. To theorize on such an expansion of foreign policy, we employ an abductive approach and revisit the polity, politics, and policy dimensions of foreign policy. We establish how these are expanded in five transnational sectors, namely state-religion, state-ideology, state-media, state-business, and state-diaspora. We then devise a typology of hybrid actorness by identifying different subtypes that range from latent to fully manifested hybrids. We argue that this model will help better grasp the evolving foreign policy phenomenon of the transnational in an increasingly globalized world.