Culture in World Politics

KEVIN AVRUCH Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA PETER BLACK Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA DAVID BLANEY Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Macalaster College, USA ROLAND BLEIKER Department of Political Science, Australian National University, Canberra RAYMOND COHEN Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ROXANNE LYNN DOTY Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Arizona State University, Tempe YALE H. FERGUSON Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, Newark, USA NAEEM INAYATULLAH Assistant Professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University MARC HOWARD ROSS William Rand, Jr., Professor in the Department of Political Science. Bryn Mawr College, Bryn, USA ROBERT A. RUBINSTEIN Director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs VERONICA WARD Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Utah State University, Logan, Utah

World politics can be viewed as the patterns of cooperation and conflict between groups of people with different cultural backgrounds. Culture in World Politics contributes to this development by presenting a variety of ways in which the roles of cultures in world politics can be studied.World politics can be viewed as the patterns of cooperation and conflict between groups of people with different cultural backgrounds. Surprisingly, though, for several decades the topics of culture in international relations has been largely ignored. Only recently an increasing interest has (re-)emerged in how world politics is affected by cultures, i.e. by collectively shared perceptions, norms and beliefs. Culture in World Politics contributes to this development by presenting a variety of ways in which the roles of cultures in world politics can be studied. A major aim of the book is to highlight alternative ways of thinking about the effects of culture on international relations, and to stimulate discussion on the relative merit of these various approaches. The book also shows the relevance of cultural studies for understanding two areas often assumed to be free of cultural influences: international violence, and the international political economy. The contributions not only include insightful theoretical discussions, but also show how illuminating empirical analyses can be undertaken with the help of cultural theories.