“As origens da diplomacia: investigando o significado do ‘internacional’ na Pré-História

Abstract

There is a consensus that the classic Westphalian model of sovereign states suffers from severe limitations. The search for an IR founding myth entails going back much before the milestone of Westphalia (1648). It is suggested that the founding moment of international relations would have occurred during the “first encounter” between two distinct bands of Homo sapiens in the Paleolithic, around 150-100,000 years ago. A case is made to study the “international” dynamic among groups of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, which, although living in a pre-state era, developed several modalities of interaction. Three scenarios are considered: non-contact or absence of relations by retreat or isolation; conflict or hostile relations triggered by an instinct of self-defense (birth of war); and cooperation or friendly relations, barter, and other types of exchange, including diplomacy