The Place of Culture in the Current International Relations

Abstract

Culture and international relations easily appear to be mutually contradictory terms. To speak of "culture" is to invoke the creative capacities of human beings, to point, for example, to the constitutive role of values and visions, to the power of language and aesthetic expression, to communities great and small engaged in reconstructing normative aspirations and reshaping the possibilities for a decent way of life. To speak of "international relations," by contrast, is to draw upon an altogether bleaker account of the human condition, to refer to missiles and bombs, trade figures and debts, statesmanship and diplomacy, intrigue and force. It is to echo assertions about naked power and the sacrifice of cultural creativity and normative aspiration to the supposedly more enduring determinations of survival or supremacy. From the dark depths of international relations, the term culture takes on an aura of frivolity. It appears to refer to the idealistic and utopian, to the veneer of civilized decency that is always stripped away by the harsh realities of power politics and international conflict. This work aims at showing the contrary.