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The Cultural Construction of International Relations

The Invention of the State of Nature

  • Book
  • © 2000

Overview

Authors:
  1. Beate Jahn

    1. University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

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About this book

The discipline of international relations deals with the problem of culture by defining world politics as a state of nature, yet it ignores the fact that the concept of the state is itself a cultural product. This book uncovers the history of this idea, revealing its origins in the European conquest of America, its crucial role in the emergence of the Enlightenment world view, and its continuing negative consequences for our attempts to understand world politics.

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Culture, Nature and the Ambivalence of International Theory

    1. Culture, Nature and the Ambivalence of International Theory

      • Beate Jahn
      Pages 1-29

  3. Historical Origins of the State of Nature

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31
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    2. The ‘Discovery’ of America as a Culture Shock

      • Beate Jahn
      Pages 33-50

    3. Reinventing the State of Nature

      • Beate Jahn
      Pages 51-71

    4. The Politics of the State of Nature in the ‘New’ World

      • Beate Jahn
      Pages 72-91

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 170-182
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Reviews

...she produces a straightforward deconstruction of the nature/culture dichotomy and some of its uses in IR. American Political Science Review

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Beate Jahn

About the author

Beate Jahn is Lecturer in International Relations, University of Sussex.

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