Conclusion

Abstract

Friendship in International Relations (IR) is generally regarded either as a utopian project, which implies that scholars must separate the idealistic notion of friendship from ‘real’ international politics, or it is seen as potentially destructive and harmful because such alleged ‘cheap talk’ promises a false state of certainty that others are eager to exploit, which suggests that scholars should disregard the concept altogether. This volume hopes to correct this reductionist approach to friendship in IR by providing a more substantial and varied conceptualisation, as well as empirical verification.