National Role Conceptions (NRCs) constitute the normative boundaries within which states conduct foreign policy. States have to deal with two audiences: (1) domestic and (2) foreign. Domestically, NRCs may differ from what a state’s citizens think its foreign policy should be. At the same time, NRCs should in the long run be compatible with citizens’ opinion, especially in democratic states, where foreign-policy makers are accountable to voters. Citizens’ opinions are related to voters’ positions in the domestic political cleavage structure: changes in domestic political alignments may in turn change the NRCs that guide a state’s foreign policy and hence that policy. In this paper argues that the dominant mix of cleavages determines the emergence and strength of NRCs and thus the state’s foreign policy. Second, an NRC addresses a foreign public. I will investigate how convincingly states communicate NRCs to the broader foreign public. Does that foreign public believe that a state acts according to those roles? Does that public also see the same roles as appropriate for that state? I try to examine the effects of NRCs on nation branding (the communication of a state’s image) and on public diplomacy (the advocacy of a state’s interests) to the broader foreign public. Finally, I investigate the effects of these forms of political communication on a state’s soft power, also taking into account the role of credibility and counter-branding. In order to develop this causal claim, Norway is used as a case.
