International Relations and the Role of Trust

Dear Colleagues,

Searching for peace, security, wellbeing, and social welfare in global affairs, trust is usually a key component of every international relation (e.g., between states, individuals or organisations). Domestic and international politics are concerned about the trustworthiness of their partners—not only globally, but also in Europe. Distrust may become an obstacle for peacebuilding activities or social welfare programmes. Very prominent problems facing humanity, such as the current refugee crisis, climate change, or nuclear proliferation require international cooperation to be overcome and thus trustful relations between the different actors—individuals and organization, potentially whole systems, such as states—are mandatory. Building and maintaining trustful international relationships among those large collectives is of crucial relevance. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to understand the underlying practical mechanisms and dynamics of these processes—visualised with real cases.

One special challenge for trustful international relations is cultural differences between the partners. Researchers have shown for example, that western nations (like Europe) in negotiations primarily care to exchange information and communicate with each other, while eastern nations (like China) rather communicate clear offers without exchanging information any further. While the existence of such cultural differences is indisputable in negotiation strategies, the search for solutions for the management of such cross-cultural relationships is not yet completed. Thus, trust has to be carefully treated in the cultural context if it is the key to a better communicative exchange between different nations.

This Special Issue seeks to provide strong practical cases to understand how trustful international relationships among large collectives can be built and maintained. As we want to increase our understanding of trust in international relations, this call will encourage trust scholars and those with an interest in trust issues to reach out and consider influences from other disciplines and the research literature from all over the world. There are many complex questions which remain, particularly around the dynamics and processes underlying trust creation, maintenance, and restoration across a range of contexts (e.g., migration, politics, less developed societies) and types of relationships (e.g., between states, individuals or organisations). We encourage particular researchers from different areas, such as politics, sociology, or bio technology, as well as from countries such as Africa, South America, or India, that develop insights into trust research. Finally, we are wondering, what direction studies of trust in international relations will take in the future?

Ann-Marie Nienaber
Gerhard Schewe
Guest Editors

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• trust and peace, security, wellbeing or social welfare in global affairs
• trust between systems or organizations (e.g., states, governments, organizations)
• trust between individuals from different cultures/societies
• distrust and peace-building activities or social welfare programmes
• trust and culture
• practical mechanisms and dynamics of trust
• international institutional networks and trust
• shared values, trust and emotions
• expectations and vulnerability
• government regulations and political decisions
• intercultural communication and trust