ABSTRACT
Geopolitics is often a game of seduction. Seduction is a subtle process: the seducer fl atters, the seducer promises, the seducer suggests. The fi nal seduction requires the seduced to acquiesce to the seducer’s requests, yet, at the same time, to see those requests as fulfi lling his or her needs and desires. “Seduction,” Joseph Nye tells us, “is always more effective than coercion, and many values like democracy, human rights, and individual opportunities are deeply seductive” (2004: x). Such has been the game of politics in the post-Westphalian international system, where seductionrather than conquest-is much more acceptable and ultimately, more satisfying. The seducer offers the promise of democracy-and the peace and security enjoyed by more “developed” democratic states-and the seduced is fl attered that these possibilities exist.
