States of ambivalence: Recovering the concept of ‘the Stranger’ in International Relations

Abstract

This article revisits and revives the concept of ‘the Stranger’ in theorising international relations by discussing how this figure appears and what role it plays in the politics of (collective) identity. It shows that this concept is central to poststructuralist logic discussing the political production of discourses of danger and to scholarship on ontological security but remains subdued in their analytical narratives. Making the concept of the Stranger explicit is important, we argue, because it directs attention to ambivalence as a source of anxiety and grasps the unsettling experiences that political strategies of conquest or conversion, including practices of securitisation, respond to. Against this backdrop, the article provides a nuanced reading of the Stanger as a form of otherness that captures ambiguity as a threat to modern conceptions of identity, and outlines three scenarios of how it may be encountered in interstate relations: the phenomenon of ‘rising powers’ from the perspective of the hegemon, the dissolution of enmity (overcoming an antagonistic relationship), and the dissolution of friendship (close allies drifting apart). Aware that recovering the concept is not simply an academic exercise but may feed into how the term is used in political discourse and how practitioners deal with ‘strange encounters’, we conclude by pointing to alternative readings of the Stranger/strangeness and the value of doing so.

Rethinking Nature Relations

“…Thus, these types of classifications regularly place what much literature calls the Self (of the person or groups doing the classifying) at the centre and distinguish an "Other" from this Self (e.g. Berenskötter and Nymalm 2021).…”

Logics of Othering: Sweden as Other in the time of COVID-19

“…Alternative previous research also allows for positive or exemplary Others, which become the object of admiration and emulation (Rumelili, 2004: 36; Abizadeh, 2005: 45; Hansen, 2006: 38–41), or integration (Guillaume, 2010). There is also mention of more ambivalent Others, such as the ‘stranger’ (Berenskötter and Nymalm, 2021), with whom the relationship is arguably more ambiguous.…”

Anxiety and the biographical Gestalt of political leaders

“…Yet, it may be more helpful to read Trump as a symbol that simultaneously controlled and produced anxiety amongst different audiences, domestically and internationally. He embodied a particular biographical narrative of America in sharp contrast to the Gestalt represented by Barack Obama; so for those who identify with the America Obama stood for, the Trump presidency appeared 'strange' (Berenskötter and Nymalm 2021) and was a time of heightened anxiety. At the same time, Trump's Gestalt did, and continues to, provide ontological security to millions who felt unsettled by what (they thought) Obama embodied.…”