Theory and methodology of everyday foreign policy

This chapter dives into the theoretical argument for everyday foreign policy and the methodology that underpins it. By bridging literatures on nationalism and international relations, practicing foreign policy on the grassroots level is theorized as a manifestation of an (individual’s) psychological desire for a positive self-identity and subjectivity. In this chapter, the author will show how assemblage theory can bring together diverging approaches to the study of the everyday, highlighting embodied and discursive practices. This way, everyday foreign policy becomes a rhizomatic phenomenon, where both biological and cultural elements create a network through bodies and physical and digital spaces. The nature of our digital everyday is a perfect fit for the rhizomatic ontology of assemblage theory with its constant state of becoming, its flux and flow. Moreover, a rhizome’s core characteristic of multiplicity celebrates multiple modes of thinking, acting, and being and is helpful to conceive of foreign policy as something beyond high-level meetings and diplomatic cables. The latter is reflected in the methodological approach for this book defined by discourse mapping and tracing, as well as ethnographic fieldwork.