In an influential paper published nearly a decade ago (A Cultural Theory of International Relations, Cambridge, 2008), the American political scientist Richard Ned Lebow proposed a new vision on international relations. Drifting away from the realist and liberal schools of thought, Lebow explained the evolutions from the international system in a cultural perspective. The norms, beliefs, values, ideas and identities of all kinds are factors with an overwhelming influence on the international political order. Especially starting with the second half of the XX-th century, the non-statal actors (multinational corporations, religious groups, NGOs, minorities of all kinds etc.) have provided new dynamics for international relations, while the digital revolutions has „democratized” the access to the world scene, facilitating the unrestricted communication of the profound, cultural layers of human beings. The virtual interactions of the citizens of the world, of their ideas and attitudes, including those related to international relations, are meetings of culturally determined ways of seeing and understanding the world.

The interdisciplinary group gathered specialists in international relations, political scientists, specialists in legal studies, philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, theologians etc. that studied, especially from this cultural perspective, topics that were specific to international relations, which were of great relevance also for Romania.

Some of these topics were:

-Europe and/vs. America. Towards the configuration of new Trans-Atlantic relationships?
-Europe and Russia: between economic attraction and Russophobia;
-Europe and the Islamic world;
-Intra-European rifts: geographic fragmentations and different integration speeds;
-Crises and international institutions: war and peace in the 21st century.