Cultural Factors in International Relations / edited by R.P. Anand

Despite the fact that our newly emerging worldwide community of states has become increasingly inter-dependent in the present thermo-nuclear age, the world today is seriously divided by ideology and aspirations. Understanding culture in a wider senso as reflecting the values, habits, and accumulated mores of a society, there can be little doubt that peoples and countries are affected hy their cultural differences which reflect their values, outlooks, intentions, interests, habits and historical hopes and fears. Unless these cultural and other differences are understood. and appreciated, there is a possibility of misconceptions, misinterpretations, and erroneous judgment on all sides, which can be extremely dangerous in this age.

This book seeks to understand some aspects of these cultural differences of various countries in their dealings with each other. Specifically, it examines in one par: the cultural problems in treaty negotiations because it is through treaties or agreements, formal or informal, that independent sovereign states interact with each other and try to protect their interests and rights in the international society. Several eminent scholars and practitioners of international law and relations from several countries study and evaluate the impact of cultural diffe rences on international relations with special reference to the negotiation of treaties.

In the second part, the book examines how similar or diverse cultural factors affect the relations amongst states in a limited region of Southeast Asia. ASEAN has been taken up as a subject of study by several scholars not only because of its importance as an area lying on the crossroads of the East and the West, but also because it provides a rich and fertile ground for the study of the impact of diverse cultural factors on the lives and behaviour of these ancient societies in an entirely new age.