Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer/Autumn 2018 | Page 8

INTRODUCTION: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ARE ACOUSTIC. LET’S LISTEN!
vance�of musical practices and aural phenomena in different arenas: from diplomatic
negotiation to armed conflicts, from hope for peace to war contexts. All these perspectives
lead to another way for describing actors in world politics that should be adopted
at some point by IR scholars. Sensitivity to silence, noises, and above all the acoustic aspects
in the international realm enrich our understanding of interactions wherever they
take place, because IR exceed the logic of calculation and of a so-called Raison d’Etat…
It is also a sensory reality.
Frédéric Ramel is a full professor in Political Science and the Head of Political
Science Department at Sciences Po, Paris, France. After his Ph.D., he
became a postdoctoral fellow at the Raoul Dandurand Chair (University of
Quebec at Montréal). As tenured Professor, he taught at the Jean Monnet
Faculty of Paris Sud XI and participated in the creation of the Institute of
Strategic Research at the Military School (IRSEM), of which he had been
the scientific director between 2009 and 2013. He deals with international
security, intergovernmental organizations, and normative issues in IR. One
of his current research programs is dedicated to the relations between aesthetics
and international relations. More specifically, he analyzes the role of
music in diplomacy and armed conflicts conceptually and historically. For
instance, he studied the idea of Concert as a philosophical convention in the
perpetual peace tradition during the eighteenth century. He also focuses on
current musical experiences of reconciliation thanks to music and especially
the East–West Divan Orchestra initiated by Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim.
Among his last publications: International Relations, Music and
Diplomacy (as editor with Cecile Prévost-Thomas, Palgrave MacMillan,
2018), “Teaching IR through Arts: some lessons learned” (International
Studies Perspectives, 19 (4), November 2018) and in Presses de Sciences
Po: L’Enjeu mondial 2018. Guerres et conflits armés au XXIème siècle
(with Benoit Pélopidas), L’Attraction mondiale (Alfred Thibaudet Award
2013).
References
Ahrendt, Rebekah, Ferraguto, Mark and Damien Mahiet (eds.). (2014) Music and Diplomacy
from the Early Modern Era to the Present. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
5