Political Communication and Performative Leadership (eBook)

This edited collection explores the intersections of populist communication, performative leadership and international politics. It investigates the mechanisms and dynamics connecting these core conceptual fields and offers empirical examples. Together, the contributors to the volume argue that populist communication, i.e. the language, deliberation and discursive performance of populist ideas, has a profound and lasting impact not only on domestic politics, but in terms of foreign policies as well as the conduct of international politics writ large. First, populist communication shapes how global, regional and transborder issues are debated and strategically used for political purposes domestically. Second, populist communication changes when and how states and other actors in turn formulate responses and policies vis-a-vis, for example, migration, global health, climate change, trade, or war. Finally, populist communication affects the nature of international politics. It influences how actors conduct themselves internationally, and how we may conceive of core concepts and practices such as diplomacy, security, cooperation, and order. To illustrate these mechanisms, the contributors explore cases from around the world, demonstrating the relevance of populist communication for international politics in both the Global South and the Global North.

Corina Lacatus is Lecturer in Global Governance at Queen Mary University of London. She holds doctorates from London School of Economics and University of California. Her book 'The Strength of Our Commitments' is  forthcoming with University of Chicago Press. She published widely on populist communication in the United States, Europe, and Africa. 

Gustav Meibauer is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he also completed his doctorate in International Relations. He researches international relations theory, foreign policy decision-making and political communication. 

Georg Löfflmann is Lecturer in US Foreign Policy at Queen Mary University of London. His research examines the intersection of security narratives, national identity and foreign and security policy, with a particular focus on the United States of America. He has edited a special issue of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations on the 'Study of Populism in IR', and is the author of American Grand Strategy Under Obama: Competing Discourses (Edinburgh University Press, 2017).