Resumen de “These are not just slogans”

Zohar Kampf, Gadi Heimann, Elena Alvar

• The goal of this study is to capture the meaning of interstate friendship from the perspective of international actors and to underline the benefits of analyzing speech acts as a tool for revealing the relational scripts that guide interstate relations. Analysis of the discourse surrounding 215 assertions of friendship made by statespersons in a variety of diplomatic encounters and cultural contexts allows us to identify the factors that state actors articulate to develop friendly interstate relations, the practices expected from a friendly state, and the goals attributed to practices of friendship. In the Conclusion we discuss the differences between interpersonal and interstate friendships, and how the speech act of friendship plays a part in the construction of interstate relations.