Bullettin n. 1/2011 | ||
June 2011 | ||
Andrea Oelsnera and Antoine Vion |
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Friends in the region: A comparative study on friendship building in regional integration | ||
in International Politics , Volume 48, Issue 1 , 2011 , 129–151 | ||
The role of international friendship in regional integration – be it as one of encouraging integration or as its by-product – tends to be overshadowed by (realist) assumptions of naked self-interest. This article aims to open up a space for friendship in the study of regional integration, by exploring the structuration of a series of speech acts and institutional facts that can be interpreted as signs of engagement in, and proofs of, friendship. In doing this, it puts forward a new analytical perspective and methodological framework. The case studies chosen to illustrate the analysis – the Franco–German and the Argentine–Brazilian dyads – reflect the historical meaning of the experience of moving away from enmity/antagonism towards building relationships based on mutual trust, which put these dyads at the centre of regional integration processes. | ||