Neighbors & strangers
Subtitle: the fundamentals of foreign affairs
By: William R. Polk.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 366
Subjects: World politics; National security; Commerce -- History
Other titles: Neighbors and strangers.
Description: Drawing on decades of experience in government and in the academy, William R. Polk offers a uniquely informed view of foreign relations as they occur in the real world. Rather than focusing narrowly on diplomacy, Polk's broad study of intelligence and espionage, defense and warfare, trade and aid, and intervention and law reveals how the tools of diplomacy evolved - and how they interact to form a pattern with which we must deal if we are to move safely into the twenty-first century.

But Neighbors and Strangers is not merely a guide to the future; instead, Polk draws upon studies of animal and primitive social behavior and the historical record to illuminate for the general reader the underlying principles and consistencies that characterize relations with foreigners.

As with other fundamental principles of foreign affairs, Polk shows how walls continue to be a part of our arsenal in dealing with enemies, but today they often tend to be "virtual," ranging from cultural barriers to the aborted Strategic Defense Initiative.

At the same time, new ways of scaling such walls can be seen in the proliferation of Western ideas and tastes, both through the rapid communications technologies of modern computers as well as through the traditional "cultural blenders" of radio, cinema, and television. Ultimately, Polk argues, fewer and fewer of our neighbors will be strangers.

Accessible and engaging, Neighbors and Strangers provides a revelatory look at how foreign affairs, despite changes in its outward forms, continues to reflect the well-springs of human nature.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-349) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Part one : The bottom line.; title: Staying alive in a dangerous world; title: Out of the mists of the past; title: Our possessions; title: Part two : Defense.; title: Keeping them out; title: Rome, walled China, and medieval Europe; title: Modern walls; title: Part three : Armies and warfare.; title: The first armies; title: Assyria and Rome; title: Soldiers, mercenaries, and guerrillas; title: The colonial auxiliary; title: Weapons; title: Modern armies; title: Part four : Nongovernmental relations.; title: Trade; title: The trader; title: European trade and finance; title: The amateurs; title: Part five : Intelligence and espionage; title: Getting to know them; title: Spies and spymasters; title: Tools of the trade; title: Espionage and counterintelligence; title: Part six : Diplomacy.; title: Peaceful relations between states; title: Worldviews and strategy; title: The conduct of relations; title: The medieval school of statecraft; title: Diplomats and their masters; title: Intervention and international law; title: Part seven : Getting rid of the alien.; title: Parting company; title: Ethnic cleansing; title: Coming together