Friends and Foes

Relations between states reflect interests: security, money, weapons, and resources. The interpersonal relations of the people representing these states, including their loves and their hates, are not supposed to influence these interests and the decisions they dictate.

But is it the case?

Our research group, led by Prof. Zohar Kampf and Prof. Gadi Heimann from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has decided to investigate the intriguing and highly debated questions regarding whether interpersonal interactions have consequences for foreign policy, and if so, how such connections translate into interstate relations.

We answer these questions by exploring the sites at which interpersonal practices are performed, disclosing the knowledge required for their successful execution—namely, to build, maintain, downgrade, or recover relations—and tracing their outcomes in terms of interstate relations.