Couples and Trust-Building in International Society

Trust is apparently becoming an increasingly precious good in interstate relations, chiefly because of the widespread perception that the level of trust existing within the international community is insufficient to sustain large-scale cooperation of the kind needed to address the global challenges it faces. The reason why the lack of trust is particularly detrimental to the working of multilateral institutions is evident: it prevents the social construction (or reproduction) of the problems’ indivisibility, the final result being a collapse of social construction (or reproduction) of group indivisibility, the very basis of any multilateral enterprise. The present pervasive lack of trust – it is suggested – can in fact be addressed in terms of shortage of social capital within international society. In this perspective, the couple metaphor will be employed to explore the primary source of trust: interpersonal – or interstate in this case – capital. The subsequent step will be to reflect upon the possibility that what has been called «interstate capital», being produced within dyadic relationships, may be «socialized», thus increasing the overall social capital of international society. In order to do so, the dimension of «network capital» will be explored, emphasizing the «bridging» function of social capital.