International Relations(hips)

It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow, so I hope you have already picked up your chocolates and roses and not left that for the last minute. If so, so you can spend few minutes worse than checking Stephen Walt’s Valentine’s Day Guide to IR.

4. “Special Relationships”: Then there are those cases where two states form long and lasting bonds, usually buoyed by repeated (and possibly insincere) professions of devotion and reinforced by domestic politics and elite connections. The United States and the United Kingdom are perhaps the longest-running example these days — even if England tends to play the role of the neglected and taken-for-granted spouse — and of course there’s America’s “special relationship” with Israel. But these aren’t the only examples one can think of: Russia has had a “special relationship” of sorts with Serbia since the 19th century, and former colonial powers like Britain and France retain lingering connections to their former colonies.   Given that no two states interests are ever identical, however, an excessively intimate relationship may even be bad for both parties. If the illusion of unanimity prevents either party from a) doing what is in its own interest, b) convincing its partner to do what is actually in theirs, or c) pursuing other valuable friendships, then maybe it’s time for separate vacations.

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But what about True Love? Where does it fit in my typology?  I’m sorry, but this is the world of international politics and no self-respecting realist would put much weight on the power of love in world affairs.

Happy Valentine’s Day!