How oil rents fuel populist foreign policy
International relations literature has begun to focus on the foreign policy corollaries of populist ideologies. Populist leaders reject hegemonic Western powers, the transnational elites associated with them, and the liberal international institutions they have created. But how impactful is populist foreign policy really, given that rejection of the global liberal order potentially carries significant costs?
In his inaugural lecture (based on his research with Ferdinand Eibl) Steffen Hertog argues that populist leaders in all but the largest countries can afford radical policies only if they enjoy autonomy from international economic constraints. The main factor providing such autonomy are natural resource rents. The combination of populist leadership and resource rents creates a particular brand of radical foreign policy in which leaders combine sharp anti-Western rhetoric and diplomacy with a withdrawal from liberal international organizations. He illustrates these arguments with case studies of Bolivia, Ecuador, Iran and Venezuela and then demonstrates the wider applicability of our theory through a range of econometric tests. Professor Hertog identifies the combination of rents and populism as an important driver of the disintegration of the liberal international order.
Meet our speaker and chair
Steffen Hertog is Professor in Comparative Politics in the Department of Government at LSE. He joined the Department of Government in 2010 as a lecturer. He was previously Kuwait Professor at Sciences Po Paris, lecturer in political economy at the University of Durham and post-doctoral research fellow at Princeton University. He holds an MA from the University of Bonn, an MSc from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford.
Kathryn Hochstetler is Professor of International Development in the Department of International Development at LSE. She holds a PhD in Political Science (Minnesota), but has always been interested in the interdisciplinary study of environment and development. She has researched this theme from many angles - global environmental negotiations, regional trade agreements (Mercosur), and through the study of national environmental movements, environment policy, and democratic institutions, primarily in South America.
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