Samaritan States: International Altruism, Identity, and State Motivations

Dissertation, Cornell University (1999)
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Abstract

Sometimes, states help people outside their borders, foreigners for whom they have no official responsibility. This study aims both to increase our understanding of such times, and to sharpen our ability to conceptualize and theorize the state motivations that lie behind them. Reflecting these twin aims, it proceeds along two linked tracks, one empirical, one conceptual and theoretical. ;The empirical track investigates, through documentary and interview research, what has prompted three different states---Mali, Mexico, and Sweden---to provide disaster relief to foreign disaster victims, focusing on conscious motivations. It finds that for each of the three states, altruistic concern was at least an important part of the motivations behind relief. In Mali, altruism was the only evident motive. Sweden's altruism was combined with pursuit of long-term material and strategic interest. For Mexico, altruism blended with social norm compliance and pursuit of material, strategic and political interests. ;The conceptual/theoretical track of the study, for its part, establishes a basic conceptual framework for thinking about motivations by clarifying and dissecting some basic motivational concepts---interests, altruism, and identity---exploring their meanings, subdivisions, and inter-relationships with each other. Subsequently, it evaluates the usefulness of this framework in the light of the case studies, and applies the framework and the resulting lessons to a critique of some current international relations literature. Lessons drawn include the following: Interests should not be conflated with preferences, since some preferences are non-interest based. The attempt to distinguish between interest definition and "mere" policy choice in theoretical debates is in most cases flawed and counterproductive. Altruism has a number of distinct sources, and the source can affect the nature of the resulting concern and behavior. Underlying the different sources of altruism are two different components of identity. One component emphasizes self-concept, the other connections to people, symbols, or attitudes. Both components play significant roles in guiding state behavior, altruistic and non-altruistic. ;Taken together, these lessons point to the benefits of constructivist and liberal frameworks for understanding international relations

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