Beyond pain : the role of pleasure and culture in the making of foreign affairs / Thomas A. Breslin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Breslin, Thomas A.

Series:

Praeger studies on ethnic and national identities in politics.

Praeger studies on ethnic and national identities in politics, 1527-9901

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International relations and culture.

Diplomacy.

Pleasure.

Pain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 203 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024

Place of Publication:

Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Breslin demonstrates that, for two millennia, states in East Asia, Europe, and America have successfully used pleasure to protect themselves and advance their interests, at a small fraction of the cost of militarized policies. Indeed, the Chinese demonstrated that pleasure-based policies primed a stream of highly profitable foreign trade and bolstered the state. Pleasure was feared because it was effective as both an offensive and defensive strategy. The colleens of Ireland and the bibis of India showed how inexorably effective pleasure could be in confounding militarily stronger invaders. In contrast, resorting to violence and pain generally undermined aggressive states. Cultural factors have shaped the choice of pleasures used. Food-centered China has used food, as well as sex and tourism, as tools in its foreign relations. Rome used wine; Byzantium, precious metals, banquets, and public spectacles; Venice, sex, money, and art; England, money and education. America has used sex, money, education, music, and tourism. Breslin's provocative text is based on a wide reading of secondary sources and some primary sources as well as a quarter century of teaching the history of foreign relations.

Contents:

Cover

BEYOND PAIN

Contents

Preface

NOTE

1 The Five Baits

NOTES

2 Ten Thousand Persian Archers

3 Roman Virgins and Vandals

4 The Glittering Diplomacy of Byzantium

5 The Byzantine Doge and the Parsimonious Prince

6 Lording It over the Britons: England's Anglo-Norman Empire

7 The British Empire: Doomed in the Fleshpots of Paris

8 Whiskey versus Rum: The Roots of America's Bicultural Foreign Policy

9 Sweet and Sour: China Deals with the Modern West

Bibliography

UNPUBLISHED MATERIALS

PUBLISHED MATERIALS

Index

About the Author.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-192) and index.

ISBN:

9798400618055

9786610373895

9781280373893

128037389X

9780313073656

0313073651

9780313046353

0313046352

OCLC:

58788803