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Home > Open Access Journals > JSS > Vol. 18 > No. 3 (2025)

 

Author Biography

Thomas Reilly received his doctorate from Rutgers University and has held positions at Marist University, Rutgers, Lehigh and Seton Hall Universities. His research interests include diversionary foreign policy international relations theory, East Asian politics, political misinformation and the internal dynamics of autocratic institutions.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.18.3.2371

Subject Area Keywords

Foreign policy, International relations, Strategy

Abstract

The diversionary theory of war remains controversial in International Relations. The extant literature remains dominated by the study of democratic diversions and the use of warfare as the prime diversionary strategy. The sheer amount of work covering democratic diversions has created theoretical biases which are oft transposed to autocratic states, despite being largely unique to democratic processes. This article expands the traditional bounds of diversionary theory to provide a logic of autocratic diversions and diversionary strategies outside of war, presenting a theoretical framework which argues that institutionalization is the primary conduit through which the intended audience, benefit and preferred diversions are dictated. In doing so, I argue institutionalization functions as a diversionary multiplier, with higher levels of institutionalization allowing for the utilization of smaller-scale diversions, with the inverse being true. This article advances an initial theoretical framework and offers some preliminary illustrative support in an effort to advance the debate on autocratic diversions and move the diversionary theory of war to one of broader foreign policy.

Disclaimer

The author does not report any conflicts of interest, nor did they receive any external funding in support of this research.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Jack S. Levy, Avery Goldstein, Andrey Tomashevskiy and Eric Davis for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this work.

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