Description
This paper draws upon the Aristotelian framework for the politics of friendship to explore relations between Libyan and American citizens in the context of Facebook friendship groups and how these groups can be used to foster trust, understanding and peace. This paper focuses on friendship as a social process that can possess both political and personal attributes and has the potential to transform relations within the international arena. To do this, it applies the Aristotelian framework on friendships of utility, pleasure, and virtue to a case study of relations between Libyan and American citizens. However, this requires a loosening of the ridged requirement of sameness that Aristotle sets forth. Instead, this paper argues that the value in international political friendships is how these interactions allow people to develop trust and understanding which is necessary to foster peaceful relations within the international arena. It is through this process of interaction and relating to one another that actors bridge the difference that exists between people of different cultures and develop a shared identity of friend and where “other” no longer must connote enemy.
