Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transnational Policy Articulations: India, Agriculture, and the WTO

最近，经济政策的政治权威从属地国家转移到世界贸易组织（WTO）或中美洲自由贸易协定（CAFTA）等多边机构，这给政治地理学家提出了挑战，要求他们审视超越传统国家边界的霸权政治。这个博士论文研究项目将通过对跨国霸权政治的分析来研究印度农业贸易政策与世贸组织之间的关系。霸权是一个强调非正式和事实上的权力安排的概念，它是正式司法结构的基础。它特别强调了如何使政治行为者接受和参与特定的权力结构。霸权通常是在国家层面上，将国家作为政治的容器来研究，或者在国际层面上，将国家作为行动者来研究。在这个项目中，分析的对象是印度和世贸组织的政策结果，以及促成这些结果的行动者和话语。确定了三个关键领域：(1)印度代表团代表其国家和利益的世贸组织论坛；(2)印度政府解释和证明其加入世贸组织及其对世贸组织立场的官方政策声明；(3)在印度农业贸易政策专业知识的话语社区内关于WTO的政策辩论。对世贸组织和印度政府关键文件的档案分析将用于建立影响印度农业政策的世贸组织监管机制，以及这些机制迄今为止对印度农业产生了哪些具体影响。在德里进行为期三个月的实地考察期间，将对政策专家和政府官员进行半结构化访谈。从这些访谈和关键文件中获得的数据将使用政策认识论作为概念框架进行分析。在多哈回合谈判中，农业贸易成为正在进行的世贸组织谈判中最具决定性的问题。印度在这些谈判中起着决定性的作用。这个项目将侧重于国家政治和多边组织之间的霸权衔接。它不会将民族国家的框架视为既定的，而是将探索跨越国际边界的权力网络，存在于重叠的主权领域，并模糊国家和国际组织之间的传统区别。在这里，印度不仅仅被视为在世贸组织中拥有一定利益的参与者；印度内部有助于制定国家战略的政治斗争也没有被孤立地审视。相反，我们研究的是国家和跨国霸权政治之间的联系，以及促成这种联系的话语。除了有助于政治地理学中临界状态理论的发展之外，本研究还将有助于当前对WTO体系中发达国家和发展中国家之间关系的理解。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

The recent shift of political authority over economic policy from territorial states to multilateral bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) or Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) challenges political geographers to examine hegemonic politics that overflow traditional state boundaries. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the relationship between Indian agricultural trade policy and the WTO through an analysis of transnational hegemonic politics. Hegemony is a concept that emphasizes the informal and de facto arrangements of power that underlie formal juridical structures. It especially highlights how political actors are brought to accept and participate in particular power structures. Hegemony usually is studied on a national level, taking the state as a container of politics, or on an international level, taking states as actors. In this project, the objects of analysis are policy outcomes in India and the WTO as well as the actors and discourses that contributed to them. Three key arenas are identified: (1) the WTO forums where Indian delegations represent their country and its interests; (2) official statements of policy where the Indian state explains and justifies its membership in the WTO and its positions towards the WTO; and (3) policy debates regarding the WTO within the discursive community of agricultural trade policy expertise in India. Archival analysis of key documents from the WTO and the Indian government will be used to establish the WTO regulatory mechanisms that affect Indian agricultural policy and what concrete effects have these had on Indian agriculture to date. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with policy experts and government officials during three months of fieldwork in Delhi. Data obtained from these interviews and from key documents will be analyzed using policy epistemics as a conceptual framework. During the Doha Round, agricultural trade emerged as the most decisive issue in ongoing WTO talks. India plays a decisive role in these negotiations. This project will focus on the hegemonic articulations between national politics and a multilateral organization. It will not take the framework of the nation-state as a given and will explore networks of power that cross international boundaries, exist in overlapping fields of sovereignty, and blur traditional distinctions between states and international organizations. India is not seen here as merely an actor with a certain set of interests in the WTO; nor are political struggles within India that help to produce state strategies examined in isolation. Rather, it is the articulation between national and transnational hegemonic politics and the discourses that contribute to it that are examined. In addition to contributing to the development of critical state theory in political geography, this research will also contribute to current understandings of the relationships between developed and developing countries in the WTO system. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.