The Establishment of Trust between States: Applying Process Oriented Social Network Analysis

　　Abstract: “Trust” is an important variable impacting the interactions between societal actors. Current research on trust in the field of international relations focuses primarily on empirical analysis, while the available theoretical explorations of the concept generally neglect to consider the “roots” of trust. This essay reviews and classifies current research on trust, and on the basis of social network analysis, attempts to conceptualize a framework for researching how trust is established. This framework follows the same line of thinking that has been used to advance constructivism, its core argument being that the trust “embedded” within international social networks stems from the “relations” between states. Relations based networks shape trust, while trust strengthens or weakness relational networks. As trust is built, it is institutionalized, broadened and internalized, thereby affecting the characteristics and behaviors of states. It also finds though that as relational networks themselves are dynamic, and especially as relationships are dependent on asymmetries, trust also functions as a tool for the distribution of social capital.

　　Author: Cao Dejun is a master student in the Institute of World Economy and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Science