What is it about?
International relations are not just about power and prosperity. Politics among nations is also about self-worth, an even more fundamental human motivator. The article identifies three different cultures of self-worth: honour, face, and dignity. It discusses important variation in the way states and nations relate to members of their own culture of self-worth, as well as members of other such cultures.
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Why is it important?
Have you ever wondered why international relations are so different in the Middle East from East Asia? Why China is so popular among Africans despite the fact that Chinese business practices are arguably more neo-colonial than those of western businesses? And why, after World War II, German-French and German-Dutch relations have been so much better than Japanese-Chinese and Japanese-Korean relations? The article will provide you with helpful clues to answer such questions.
Perspectives
Proposing a novel international relations theory is humbling. The only reason why I dare to do so is that scholars have given insufficient attention to self-worth as a fundamental human motivator, not only at the level of individuals and small groups but also at the levels of states and nations. Theory can be very abstract, but in this case you will find that it gives you a handle to appreciate world affairs in concrete and helpful ways.
Prof. Dr. Joerg Friedrichs
University of Oxford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An intercultural theory of international relations: how self-worth underlies politics among nations, International Theory, December 2015, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s1752971915000202.
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