Literature

Examines how ideational, normative, material and emotional bonds between collectives and individuals influence statecraft, foreign policy, alliances, and dynamics among non-state actors.

Adams, T., Heimann, G., & Kampf, Z. (2024). How do states reminisce? Building relations through bonding narratives. Cooperation and Conflict 59(1): 47-65

Berenskoetter, F. (2007) ‘Friends, There Are No Friends? An Intimate Reframing of the International’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 35(3): 647-676

Berenskoetter, F., & Giegerich, B. (2010). From NATO to ESDP: A Social Constructivist Analysis of German Strategic Adjustment after the End of the Cold War. Security Studies 19(3): 407–452.

Berenskoetter, F. (2011). Gefährliche Freundschaft: Der deutsche Einsatz in Afghanistan im transatlantischen Verhältnis. Zeitschrift für Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik, 4 (Suppl 1), 271-298

Berenskoetter, F. (2014). Friendship, security, and power. In S. Koschut & A. Oelsner (Eds.), Friendship and international relations. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 51-71

Berenskoetter, F., & van Hoef, Y. (2017). Friendship and foreign policy. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Foreign Policy, ed. Cameron Thies (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.

Berenskötter, F. (2021) ‘Enabling critique: The use of "Friendship" in German-Israeli Relations’ in Concepts at Work: On the Linguistic Infrastructure of World Politics. Ish-Shalom, P. (ed.). University of Michigan Press, pp. 157-184

Berenskötter, F. & Mitrani, M. (2022) ‘Is it Friendship? An Analysis of Contemporary German-Israeli Relations’, International Studies Quarterly Vol. 66, no. 1, sqac001

Chowdhury, E. H. and Philipose, L. (eds) (2016), Dissident Friendships: Feminism, Imperialism, and Transnational Solidarity. Champaign

Danchev, A. (1997). On Friendship: Anglo-America at fin de siecle. International Affairs, 73(4): 747–759.

Devere, H. (2014). Friendship in International Treaties. in Koschut, S. & Oelsner, A. (Eds.) Friendship and International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, 182-198.

Devere, H. (2014) ‘Perpetual Peace and Friendship in International Treaties. Peace Studies Journal, 7(1): 38-45.

Devere, H. (2024) Making Connections: Friendship and Politics. Palgrave.

Devere, H., & Smith, G. M. (2010). Friendship and Politics. Political Studies Review, 8(3): 341–356.

Devere, H. and Michael Ligaliga, M. (2013) Covenant or Contract: The Treaty of Friendship between New Zealand and Samoa 1962. Journal of Pacific Studies. 33(2): 116-132.

Devere, H. (ed) (2023) Friendship, Peace and Social Justice. Routledge

Devere, H., Mark, S., & Verbitsky, J. (2011). A history of the language of friendship in international treaties. International Politics, 48(1): 46-70.

Digeser, P. E. (2009). Public Reason and International Friendship. Journal of International Political Theory, 5 (1), 22–40.

Eznack, L. & Koschut, S. (2014). The Sources of Affect in Interstate Friendship, in Koschut, S. & Oelsner, A. (Eds.) Friendship and International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 72-88.

Eznack, L. (2011). Crises as Signals of Strength: The Significance of Affect in Close Allies’ Relationships, Security Studies, 20 (2), 238-265.

Feldman, L. G. (2012). Germany’s foreign policy of reconciliation from enmity to amity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Haugevik, K. (2018). Special Relationships in World Politics. Inter-state Friendship and Diplomacy after the Second World War. Routledge.

Haugevik, K. (2023). United clubs of Europe: Informal differentiation and the social ordering of intra-EU diplomacy. Cooperation and Conflict 58(3): 374-392.

Haugevik, K. (2024) Friendship in International Politics. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, N. Roy (ed), Oxford Academic

Hedegaard, J. (2025). Hello old friend, we meet again: How retired Japanese ministers contribute to Japan-China diplomacy. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 1–21

Heimann, G., & Kampf, Z. (2020). What makes them tick: Challenging the impersonal ethos in International Relations. Cooperation and Conflict, 56(3): 346-363.

Heimann, G., & Kampf, Z. (2022). The benefits of friendliness: the consequences of positive interpersonal relations for interstate politics. Foreign Policy Analysis, 18(2).

Kampf, Z., Heimann, G., & Aldar, L. (2022). “These are not just slogans” Assertions of friendship between states. Journal of Language and Politics, 21(5), 653-674.

King, P., & Smith, G.M. (eds.) (2007). Friendship in Politics: Theorizing Amity in and between States. Routledge.

Klose, S. (2023). Does the EU have friends?. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 61(3), 579-596.

Koschut, S., & Oelsner, A. (Eds.). (2014). Friendship and international relations. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Kupchan, C. (2010). How Enemies Become Friends. The Sources of Stable Peace. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Lesaffer, R. (2002). Amicitia in Renaissance Peace and Alliance Treaties (1450-1530). Journal of the History of International Law, 4 (1), 77-99.

Marggraff, D. (2026). Solomon Islands’ ‘Friends to all: enemy to none’ foreign policy: reconceptualising international friendship. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 80(3), 339–367.

Mohammadpour, S & Saeidabadi, M. A. (2023). “In search of Ontological Security: Why the Anglo-American Special Relationship Endures”, Global Studies Quarterly 3, 1-12

Nordin, A. H. M. (2020). Decolonising friendship. AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies, 6:1, 88-114.

Nordin, A. H. M & Smith, G. H. (2018). Reintroducing friendship to international relations: relational ontologies from China to the West, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 18 (3) 369–396.

Oelsner, A. (2007). Friendship, Mutual Trust and the Evolution of Regional Peace in the International System. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 10(2), 257–279.

Oelsner, A. (2025) Friendship in International Relations, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, Roy, N. (ed), Oxford Academic.

Oelsner, A., & Vion, A. (eds) (2011). Special Issue: Friendship in International Relations, International Politics 48(1)

Oelsner, A., & Vion, A. (2011). Friends in the region: A comparative study on friendship building in regional integration. International Politics, 48(1), 129–151.

Oelsner, A. & Koschut, S. (2014). A Framework for the Study of International Friendship, in Koschut, S. & Oelsner, S. (Eds.) Friendship and International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan.

Onuf, N. (2009). Friendship and Hospitality: Some Conceptual Preliminaries. Journal of International Political Theory, 5(1), 1-21

Perišić, A. (2025) Forgotten Friendships: Yugoslavia and the Anticolonial Francophone World. Amherst College.

Pashakhanlou, A. H., & Berenskötter, F. (2021). Friends in war: Sweden between solidarity and self-help, 1939–1945. Cooperation and Conflict, 56(1), 83-100.

Roschchin, E. (2006). The concept of friendship: From princes to states, European Journal of International Relations, 12 (4), 599–624.

Roshchin, E. (2011). Friendship of the enemies: Twentieth century treaties of the United Kingdom and the USSR. International Politics, 48(1), 71-91

Roshchin, E. (2017). Friendship Among Nations: History of a Concept. Manchester University Press.

Ryan, H. E. (2025) Meditations on ‘international friendship’: Situating twinning in global struggles for solidarity, recognition, and restitution. Review of International Studies. 51(3): 375-389.

Ryan, H. E. (2027) Between friends: The everyday politics of twinning and linking. Bristol University Press.

Siepmann, L. M. (2025). “Freundship”? The deepening of British-German relations from pre- to post-Brexit. German Politics and Society, 43(3), 39 - 75

Smith, G. M. (2011). Friendship and the world of states. International Politics, 48(1), 10-27.

Smith, G. M., Devere, H. and von Heyking, J. (eds) (2023) Friendship Studies: Politics and Practices. Ibidem Publishers

Smith, N. R. & Fallon, T. (2022) The importance of bona fide friendships to international politics: China’s quest for friendships that matter, Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

Stambach, A. E. (2022). Chinese-Tanzanian Friendship and Friendship Treaties. Peace Review, 34(3), 292–302.

Stambach, A. E. (2026). Fragile bonds and strategic ties: the politics of friendship and affective alignment in US diplomacy. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 39(3), 370–384.

Strüver, G. (2016). What Friends Are Made of: Bilateral Linkages and Domestic Drivers of Foreign Policy Alignment with China. Foreign Policy Analysis, 12(2), 170-191.

Van Hoef, Y. (2019). Leadership through friendship: The dangers and advantages of state leaders establishing close personal relations. Journal of Leadership Studies, 13(1), 70-72.

Van Hoef, Y. (2021). Positive Peace Through Personal Friendship: Franco-German Reconciliation (1974–1995). In The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Peace (pp. 1033-1050). Singapore: Springer Singapore.

Van Hoef, Y. & O'Connor, R. (2019). Sentimental Utility Theory: Interpreting the Utilization of Collective Emotions by the Political Elite Through the Erdoğan-Obama Friendship, Political Psychology, 40 (6), 217-1233.

Van Hoef, Y. & Oelsner, A. (2018). Friendship and Positive Peace: Conceptualising Friendship in Politics and International Relations. Politics and Governance, 6 (4), 115-124.

Van Hoef, Y., & Prior, A. (2018). Interdisciplinary approaches to emotions in politics and international relations. Politics and Governance, 6(4), 48-52.

Wendt, A. (1999). Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Explores the conceptual foundations of amity, civic trust, and relational ethics from classical thinkers like Aristotle to modern political philosophy.

Aristotle (2004 [1953]). The Nicomachean Ethics. Penguin.

Badhwar, N. K. (Ed.). (1993). Friendship: A Philosophical Reader. Cornell University Press

Brunkhorst, H. (2005). Solidarity: From Civic Friendship to a Global Legal Community. Translated by Jeffrey Flynn. MIT Press.

Cicero, M. T. How to Be a Friend. transl. Philip Freeman, Princeton University Press

Derrida J. (1997). The Politics of Friendship, trans. Collins G. Verso.

Devere, H. (2026) Medieval Conceptions of Friendship: Spiritual, Secular and Political, Springer Nature

Devere, H. & King, P. (eds) (2000). The Challenge to Friendship in Modernity. Frank Cass.

Digeser, P. E. (2016). Friendship Reconsidered. Columbia University Press

Grayling, A. C. (2013) Friendship. Yale University Press.

Hutter, H. (1979) Politics As Friendship: The Origins of Classical Notions of Politics in the Theory and Practice of Friendship, Wilfried Laurier University Press.

Lu, X. (2010). Rethinking Confucian Friendship, Asian Philosophy, 20 (3), 225-245.

McGuire, B. F. (2010). Friendship and Community. The Monastic Experience, 350–1250. Cornell University Press.

Nehamas, A. (2016). On Friendship. Basic Books.

Risseeuw, C. & van Raalte, M. (2017). (Eds). Conceptualizing Friendship in Time and Place. Brill.

Romero-Iribas, A., & Smith, G. M. (2018). Friendship without reciprocation? Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Blanchot. The Good Society, 27(1-2), 1-28.

Schwarz, D. (2012). Aquinas on Friendship. Oxford University Press

Slomp, G. (2022). Hobbes Against Friendship: The Modern Marginalisation of an Ancient Political Concept. Switzerland: Palgrave.

Smith, G. M. (2011) Friendship and the Political: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Schmitt. Blackwell

Smith, G. M. (2019). Friendship as a Political Concept: A Groundwork for Analysis. Political Studies Review, 17 (1), 81–92.

Smith Pangle, L. (2003) Aristotle and the Philosophy of Friendship. Cambridge University Press

Schmitt, C. (2008). The Concept of the Political: Expanded Edition. University of Chicago Press.

Von Heyking, J. & R. Avramenko (eds) (2008). Friendship & Politics. Essays in Political Thought. University of Notre Dame Press

Analyses the social structures, group dynamics, and psychological processes that underlie trust, emotional bonding, and human connection within political systems.

Allen, G. (1998). Friendship, Sociology and Social Structure, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 15 (5), 685–702.

Allen, G. A. (1979). A Sociology of Friendship and Kinship. Routledge.

Fehr, B. (1996). Friendship Processes. SAGE

Kaplan, D. (2018) The Nation and the Promise of Friendship: Building Solidarity through Sociability. Springer Nature

Martínez‐Priego, C., & Romero‐Iribas, A. (2021). The emotions behind character friendship: From other‐oriented emotions to the ‘bonding feeling’. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 51(3), 468-488.

Romero-Iribas, A., & Oelsner, A. (2022). Social justice, social friendship, and the role of trust as an Other-Oriented emotion. Peace Review, 34(3), 352-361.

Romero-Iribas, A.& Martínez Priego, C. (2022) The emotions associated with civic friendship: a psycho-educational perspective. Estudios Sobre Educación, 43, 9-27

Romero-Iribas, A. & Martínez Priego, C. (2024). Civic friendship: a way of social strengthening in the face of the emotional isolation of the postmodernity of COVID-19, in Friendship studies: Politics and Practices, Smith, G.M., Devere H. & Von Hyking (eds.) Ibidem Verlag (Wiley), pp.191-216.

Martínez Priego, C. & Romero-Iribas, A. (2021). The Emotions behind Character Friendship: From Other-Oriented Emotions to the Bonding Feeling. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 51(3), 468-488.

Investigates how different cultures, histories, and narrative practices conceptualize friendship, solidarity, and cross-cultural peacebuilding across the globe.

Alzola, P., & Romero-Iribas, A. (2022). Paths of words: The political dimension of friendly conversation in Robert Guédiguian’s films. French Screen Studies, 22(4), 271-286.

Bell, S. & Coleman, S. (1999). The Anthropology of Friendship. Routledge.

Desai, A. & Killick, E. (2010). (Eds.). The Ways of Friendship: Anthropological Perspectives. Berghahn.

Devere, H., K. Te Maihāroa, M. Solomon & M. Wharehoka (2020) Concepts of Friendship and Decolonising Cross-Cultural Peace Research in Aotearoa New Zealand. AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies. 6(1) 53-87

Shannon, L. (2002). Sovereign Amity: Figures of Friendship in Shakespearean Context. University of Chicago Press.

Foundational security studies, constructivist theory, and relational frameworks that provide broader context for understanding trust and cooperation in world politics.

Adler, E., & Barnett M. (eds) (1998). Security Communities. Cambridge University Press.

Bially Mattern, J. (2005). Ordering International Politics: Identity, Crisis, and Representational Force. Routledge.

Booth, K. & Wheeler, N. (2007) The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation and Trust in World Politics. Palgrave.

Campbell, D. A. (2007). Unlikely Allies: Britain, America and the Victorian Origins of the Special Relationship. Hambledon Continuum.

Deutsch, K. W. et al. (1957). Political Community and the North Atlantic Area: International Organization in the Light of Historical Experience. Princeton University Press.

Holmes, M. (2018). Face-to-Face Diplomacy: Social Neuroscience and International Relations. Cambridge University Press

Hutchison, E. (2013). Affective communities as security communities, Critical Studies on Security, 1(1): 127-129.

Jackson, P. T & Nexon, D. (1999). Relations Before States: Substance, Process and the Study of World Politics. European Journal of International Relations, 5(3), 291–332.

Pouliot, V. (2008) The logic of practicality: a theory of practice of security communities, International Organization, 62(2): 257–288.

Snyder, G. (2007). Alliance Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press

Versloot, L. (2022). The vitality of trusting relations in multilateral diplomacy: an account of the European Union, International Affairs, 98(2), 509–528.

Wheeler, N. (2018). Trusting Enemies: Interpersonal Relationships in International Conflict, Oxford University Press.

Wolfers, A. (1962). Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International Politics. The Johns Hopkins Press