What is “culture”? How do we know culture when we see it? How does it manifest itself? How does it influence the way individuals, communities, and nations interact with each other? What is the relationship between culture and civilization? Does it make sense to talk about cultural and/or civilizational conflict? If it does, what form does it take? Does it necessarily lead to violent conflict? Is there such a thing as an international or global culture? What might be its elements and their sources? What new insights does our explicit focus on culture add to our understanding of international relations? What can we do with those insights in analyzing international policy development and implementation? In order to answer these questions, we will explore culture at three levels: (1) individual and community; (2) nation and state; and (3) the international system. At the individual-community level, we will examine the way culture shapes a person’s identity and role within his/her community. At the national level, we will explore the sources of "national culture" and how it informs the way members of a nation see and behave toward members of other nations, with a particular focus on the (re)production of ethnic identities, national myths, and political ideologies. At the international system level, we will scrutinize the impact of "national cultures" on relations between states, with a particular focus on deepening conflict between nationalism and globalism. How does nationalism sustain itself against the ever-expanding forces of liberal globalism? By mid-term the student will develop a research proposal to analyze the impact of culture (at any of the three levels mentioned above) on the interaction between two or more nations over a policy problem of particular interest to the student. In the second half of the semester the student will carry out the proposed research and at the conclusion of the semester he/she will present his/her findings.