The Cultural Construction of International Relations: The Invention of the State of Nature

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.