Social Forums and Friendship: A New Way of Contemplating the Notion of Friendship in International Relations

Abstract

The concept of friendship is scarcely used in the field of International Relations (IR). This is undoubtedly due to prominence of the realistic model in this field (Wendt, 1995). Prominence that reflects a historical conjuncture: ‘the long twentieth century’ was first and foremost the century of states (Hobsbawm, 1994). According to some scholars, nation-states are now being challenged by new transnational actors, both from below (with the twinning of cities and regionalisation in Europe, for example) (Vion, 2002) and from above, with the creation of supranational institutions that are at least partially outside the control of the nation-state (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). Of course, globalisation did not emerge as soon as the twentieth century ended, and political life and politics were never totally limited to the sphere of states (Bayart, 2004), but the fact remains that we are seeing a recomposition of the world of states and of the balances between political actors. This shift in the world order is being echoed by the growing reflection on the conceptualisation and relevance of the notion of ‘friendship’ in IR. ‘If the world has changed, social scientists must be prepared to understand it’ (Tarrow, 2005, p. xii), and we maintain here that the concept of friendship may represent one element of such a preparation.