文化在美国对外政策中的作用

The Importance of Culture in American Foreign Policy

文章首先利用哲学、文化学和国际关系研究领域的最新成果,建立了一个解释“文化”自变量与“对外政策”因变量的理论模型,总结出文化在对外政策中的定位、定向、规范和认同功能,然后将文化——对外政策分析模式运用到对美国对外政策的分析中,探讨了美国对外政策在其特有的文化背景下所呈现出的特点。从文化的角度分析对外政策可以理解对外政策的内涵和深层动机,但不能预测一个国家的对外行为。

Based on the latest achievements both in cultural studies and in IR theories, the paper first establishes an analysis model between culture and foreign policy. Then, by putting the model in the examination of American foreign policy under the background of American culture, it concludes the unique characteristics of American foreign policy. Finally, this paper argues that though research from the perspective of culture is important in helping people to clarify the deep—meaning and motivation of the foreign policy so that people would not only know 'what is its foreign policy' but also 'why it is', the power of culture is mostly reflected in its explanation of foreign policy rather than its prediction of foreignpolicy.