Meaning and International Relations

This innovative volume brings together specialists in international relations to tackle a set of difficult questions about what it means to live in a globalized world where the purpose and direction of world politics are no longer clear-cut. What emerges from these essays is a very clear sense that while we may be living in an era that lacks a single, universal purpose, ours is still a world replete with meaning. The authors in this volume stress the need for a pluralistic conception of meaning in a globalized world and demonstrate how increased communication and interaction in transnational spaces work to produce complex tapestries of culture and politics. Meaning and International Relations also makes an original and convincing case for the relevance of hermeneutic approaches to understanding contemporary international relations.

Peter Mandaville is Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University, Washington D.C. He was previously a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Recent publications include Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma and The Zen of International Relations: IR Theory from East West, a co-edited volume.Andrew Williams is Professor of International Relations at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Recent publications include Failed Imagination? New World Orders of the Twentieth Century. He is currently writing a book entitled The Victors and the Vanquished: Liberal Dilemmas and the Ending of Wars.