Understanding international relations through art : case study : Iran and USA : a politics of dispute

Abstract

To explore and understand international relations through culture, the conceptual models available are mainly the paradigms offered by scholars' works on civilizations and the post-cold war paradigms. The traditional approaches of Realism, Rationalism, Positivism, Behaviourism, or Idealism do not normally include culture. Culture as an important phenomenon in international relations has come to the attention of public especially since the release of Samuel Huntington's article (1993) and later book (1996) Clash of Civilizations as the most prevailing post-cold war paradigm. Basing my theoretical framework on the Civilization Theories of Johan Galtung, and those of Samuel Huntington and Majid Tehranian, I have made use of art works as primary sources of culture, and through analyzing the art works I have identified several cultural traits of the two countries in this study. By looking at the cultural traits (therefore cultural identities) of Iran and USA I try to explain the attitudes and policies that they hold towards each other. I have also made use of history as factual data to test the applicability of Galtung's Civilization Theory on the case of Iran and USA. It is the purpose of this dissertation to explore a deeper side of civilization by touching on the unconscious level and how it affects the interaction of that civilization with another in international relations. The collective psyche and the unconscious level of a civilization in the formation of culture, is what I shall explore through an in-depth analysis of samples of art works from the two civilizations of Iran and USA.