ABSTRACT
This chapter studies both conflictual and cooperational business metaphors for international relations: everything from descriptions portraying international relations as fierce bidding contests to descriptions of international relations as commercial transactions beneficial to all. After sketching associations that we attach to business in general, it gives examples of expert usage relating to international relations: excerpts from IR theories, speeches of foreign policy leaders and media coverage of world news operating with the terms and logic of buying and selling. In addition to demonstrating how business metaphors work in practice, it analyzes recommendations that these metaphors carry with them. It outlines policy choices that seem appropriate among states constantly calculating costs and benefits – both along the conflictual lines of trying to get more lucrative deals than other states or in the cooperational context of joint investments in a brighter future for all nations.
