International Affairs

Being from the USA, describe how you would negotiate a contract with a businessperson from France. How will you approach them? How does the French communication pattern and listening habit differ from your own culture? Reading suggestions How does our Language Shape the Way We Think? (Boroditsky, 2009) When Cultures Collide – Bridging the Communication Gap (Lewis, 2005) – pp. 63-79 Richard Lewis Communication model (PDF) Communication Patterns at Multicultural Organizational Meetings The Role of Cultural Distance in International Negotiations International Negotiation Quiz http://www.leadershipcrossroads.com/rs_nqui.asp? Additional Resources Center for Intercultural Learning – Country Insights (WWW)

•the nature of the democratic peace thesis •how the democratic peace works (i.e., the factors that stops democracies from going to war with each other). (e.g., see Bruce Russett’s chapter in the textbook and some of his other texts on the reading list, esp. his book, Grasping the Democratic Peace) •how robust are those mechanisms? If all states become democracies, does that mean war will be a thing of the past? (e.g., see Fukuyama’s book The End of History and the Last Man for such an optimistic reading) •you should also consider some of the alternative positions (e.g., Geis et al’s work on the ‘dark side’ of the democratic peace or Russett’s reappraisal of his earlier work in ‘Bushwacking the Democratic Peace’ or Snyder and Mansfield’s work on the war prone nature of states transitioning to democracy – all of which argue that democracy or democratisation can cause war.)