Renewing the Study of Trust in World Politics: A Relational Agenda

This introductory essay lays the groundwork for an inductive, relational approach to the study of trust in international relations. It argues that the two main accounts of trust, affective and cognitive, are less separate motivational sources of trust than two constitutive dimensions, albeit in varying degrees, of a trusting relationship. Trust is an emergent property of social relations, and the specific form and content it takes inhere in the relationship that embodies it, whether or not actors involved are deemed trustworthy a priori. In addition to emphasizing contextual manifestations of trust, this article suggests that a relational understanding of trust foregrounds normative expectations created by trusting relationships, which the mutual determination between trustworthiness and trust-responsiveness makes necessary. The article concludes with a presentation of this forum's contributions. It shows that a relational view of trust enables us to reconcile the generic question—why agents trust one another—with contextual concerns—when and how do they exhibit trusting relationships.