Introduction

Abstract

This book explores an area common to two academic disciplines: linguistics and international relations. As the phrase international relations has been accepted by scholars and by everyone else, it cannot be avoided completely, though, whenever possible, the phrase interstate relations will be preferred. The main reason for this preference is that the book will focus on relations between and among states, rather than nations. Despite the general acceptance of compound terms such as nation-state or occasional nation-for-state substitutions, in most cases every effort will be made to keep the two notions apart. Also, interstate more accurately reflects the book’s primary goal, namely, the search for the elusive ‘state is a person’ metaphor, or the personification of the political state. However, whenever interactions on the world stage are referred to, any established term, for example, international affairs, international politics, international relations, or interstate relations will be assumed to be sufficiently synonymous. For terminological simplicity and maximum coherence, the overarching abbreviation IR will be used in the text, wherever appropriate.