Neighbors & strangers

By William Roe Polk

Subjects: International Security, Commerce, National security, World politics, International relations, History, Buitenlandse politiek

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. Delving deeply into the human experience, Polk documents "fear of the foreigner" as a visceral response so deep-seated and pervasive that it transcends individual experience or even historical memory. As Polk demonstrates, the tension created by having to live as neighbors with those who were thought to be alien has played a major role in creating and shaping civilization. Building the massive walls of the ancient Near East and China, for example, not only protected the societies within them but were major economic and cultural engines of change. Men had to be recruited, trained, supervised, fed, housed, and paid; animals bought or requisitioned; kilns built; and tools produced and delivered. Walled towns may have been constructed out of fear of the stranger, but with them came urbanization, growth, and increased organizational and technical skills. 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. - Jacket flap.