The Art of International Relations

Abstract

Art/Museums: International Relations Where We Least Expect It. By Sylvester Christine. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2009. 240 pp. $29.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-59451-465-4). Part of the great strength of Christine Sylvester's book Art/Museums is that it defies disciplinary categorization. Certainly, it touches on some of the traditional issue areas that have historically comprised the field of international relations (IR): diplomacy, international trade, development, security studies, international institutions, nationalism, gender relations, the clash of civilizations, the Cold War, the War on Terror, and international law. But it does much more than this as well. By taking art and museums as its main object of analysis—a topic rarely, if ever, studied in the discipline—Sylvester uncovers a wealth of both historical and contemporary international relations that are usually overlooked. To be sure, one learns a lot about individual art galleries in this book, but one learns even more about the kinds of everyday international relations that are forged between individuals who operate through global institutions (e.g., curators, collectors, cultural diplomats, artists, philanthropists). It would be a great shame if IR scholars not already interested in art, museums, or culture dismiss the book as having nothing to do with the discipline, for Art/Museums tells us much of great importance about ourselves, our area of study, and the narrow field of vision we traditionally employ when we repeatedly ask, “What counts as an …