International Relations as a Cultural System:

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive agenda for research, where models of thought and research methods originating from social anthropology are applied to the field of international relations, which has traditionally been the domain mainly of political scientists. We suggest a number of possible anthropological approaches to the investigation of cultural aspects of international relations in the contemporary world. The aim is, on the one hand, to contribute new analytical perspectives to international relations, and, on the other hand, to open up a new field of inquiry in anthropology. A tactical intent can be added to our theoretical concern with cultural issues in international relations. It is already a standard argument of the international relations masters of ceremony that the growing body of epistemologically grounded critique may be intellectually stimulating, but that there is no need to change the traditional research agenda before the new voices have proven themselves in empirical work. Some of the new voices may see no need to rise to that challenge. For those who might just consider it, however, the suggestions made here may prove to be of some relevance.