The Psychology of Foreign Policy Meets the Sociology of the Streets

A close-up black and white photograph captures the tension of a chess game, with intricately detailed pieces standing poised on the board.

People ask me all the time what I study. Over the years as I’ve spent time thinking about it, I think the best answer is history, sociology and psychology. When you boil down International Relations, you are analyzing history. But you’re also watching sociological and on occasion psychological dynamics unfolding on the world stage.

When we look at a country, we often view it as one entity. But, in reality, we should be viewing it as two. A country is made up of two components: the government and the citizens. In western democracy, the government gets its power from the people. However, this doesn’t mean that the people always agree with the government or vice versa. For example, two heads of government could meet for a meeting and decide to sign a trade deal. These two heads of state see this deal as a benefit for both nations. Perhaps they even have a close friendship as people, maybe they both like golf. The closeness with their trade deal and personal friendship may not reflect back on how their citizens see each other. Citizens are not as well traveled as government officials and so they may not have an accurate understanding of how friendly or hostile another nation’s citizens are.

The same is true of two heads of state declaring a trade war. Even though the two governments are hostile in their policies towards each other does not mean the citizens of each country view each other negatively.  While, it would be nice if the government and the citizens agreed on how to see a foreign “country”,  this discrepancy happens because often government leaders interact with other government leaders and it's rarely reported that a visiting government official is interacting with citizens. Adding to the fact that most countries have populations in the millions and governmental policies such as trade deals, aren't guaranteed to last with the transfer of power to a newly elected head of government. It becomes hard to update viewpoints within.

This disagreement dynamic is why we need to remember in cross-cultural interactions  that the government is not the people.

Governments will occasionally lie to their citizens because they believe it the best move to win at geopolitical chess. This is often the case with powerful countries that feel threatened that the status quo might change. So governments try to anticipate the next move from other countries all in an effort to maintain the status quo.

Countryballs

The relationships between governments often reflect sociological dynamics. There are plenty of comics online that take these Dynamics and put them in Satirical scenarios. Sometimes these scenarios aren't historically accurate and other scenarios poke fun at jokes  based on historical events. These comics only came about with social media and are known as Polandball or Countryball Comics. There are some online creators that use this art style to  teach historical events in a video. The series certainly has its own creative liberties in how  each country is represented,  some of this is based on internet memes and some of it is based on the earliest comics that first popped up over 15 years ago. It is important to note that in most representations of these satirical scenarios, the “countryball” represents the government of the country, and on occasion the character will have extra details to distinguish themselves as a specific historical person.

These comics often portray governments as having human relationship dynamics with other governments. For example, because the British Empire had such a cultural impact on many places and that culture helped to establish modern countries, the United Kingdom is seen as a “father”  to its former colonies, especially the Anglo-speaking countries such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Another relationship dynamic is France and Germany being the parents of the EU  because when the predecessor to the EU was established France and Germany had the most influence. Many of these comics portray Russia as a playground bully or Big Brother,  especially to the countries in the former USSR.

Despite the seemingly complex nature of international relations, many aspects of how countries interact are based on human relationships, dynamics and even scenarios. There are two  parties in international relations: the people and their government. Diplomacy is not just trade treaties,  it is also the cultural exchange of visiting delegation or tourist. Human behavior drives the outcome in both contexts. At the end of the day, international relations is just human dynamics scaled up by 8 billion people and over 150 countries. When we interact with new people from new cultures, we must remember that a state's geopolitical chess moves are not the same as the will of its population. The government’s moves aren’t the same as the citizen’s will. Understanding this distinction is the first step to open-minded cross-cultural understanding.

Why Every Student Should Travel Before Graduation

A traveler with a backpack and map explores an ancient brick temple under a clear, bright sky.

In the modern Western world, young people have more opportunities available to them than those in previous generations. With a world of resources and information at their fingertips, it can be hard for young people to choose where they want to go after compulsory schooling. The world is more connected than it has ever been before; however, all of this information is filtered through screens. While it is not on every student's bucket list, traveling internationally as a high school student or college student is highly beneficial. It does not matter if it is for a 1-week volunteer service trip, a study abroad semester, or a gap year.

Whether intentional or not, it seems like many people, particularly in the United States, grow up believing that travel is expensive. There are a few cultural factors that contribute to this belief even before someone enters high school. In the United States, traveling, especially internationally, is seen as a luxury. This is due to the fact that travel culture often includes pictures of beautiful beaches and expensive cruise ships. This travel culture is often aimed at married couples seeking an anniversary trip or newlyweds heading on a honeymoon. This travel culture also places particular emphasis on European destinations such as France, Italy, and Spain. In the present day, this list has expanded to include Iceland, Norway, the British Isles, the Baltics, Greece, Croatia, and Portugal. The reality is, travel can be more accessible than this. Europe is just one part of the globe, and it is a vast continent. Many travel resources will group the countries of Europe together, and give advice based on a few areas. This advice ignores that the regions of Europe; the various countries and the cities within them will each contribute to a different experience. Part of this is due to the fact that the European Union is a large entity in European governance and leads to similar experiences across the continent in some ways. Even though this is the case, the European Union is not a country. If you travel to two or more countries in the EU, you'll see that there are cultural differences and different laws between countries.

A young woman with curly hair waits at a train station, wearing a blue backpack and gazing thoughtfully at the camera as a blue train stands nearby.

Travel does not have to be expensive; the financial cost of a trip varies greatly based on where you are located, which country you are flying to, the length of your trip, and whether or not you have food and housing provided to you. For example, a week-long service trip to Latin America can cost between $1,000 and $3,000 on average, with the bulk of this trip going towards the flight. I went on a one-week service trip while in high school, and the price of that trip was $1700. I do not believe that avoiding travel experiences because they are “too expensive”  is necessarily a good reason to not consider a travel experience as a young adult. The price varies even in the same region or country. If a student is interested in studying abroad,  the university might have shorter international trips with university faculty or the option to study with a third-party program. If studying at a third-party program, some universities use the “home tuition billing” model.  A scenario where the student pays their home university the same tuition that they would during a regular semester; this can exclude any residence housing cost. The university then pays the partner program in their own time. The student may only need to focus on food prices and transportation costs. Studying in another culture teaches you their perspective on various events and situations that you may have learned about back home. But when you’re present where something happened you’ll gain a new appreciation for the experience, that will last a lifetime. For instance, studying n Rome may make ancient Rome and its historical significance come alive, like a living museum.

Unlike with service trips, study abroad often gives a student the opportunity to travel outside their destination before going home, whether during the semester or after.  The ease of doing this similarly depends on a variety of factors, such as whether you are flying or perhaps taking a bus or train, depending on immigration rules. While there are areas around the world with restricted borders due to conflict, economic instability, and other factors. There are some areas around the world with agreements for locals specifically.  But even if you aren't a local of the countries with these neighborly partnerships, you can still cross borders with your passport,  where it will get stamped for a 90-day visa-free stay. Travel does not have to be expensive, it's a variable experience depending on how you’re doing it and where you’re going, and that, in of itself is a benefit.

The benefits of traveling abroad vary depending on the program or experience you choose.  However, there are two benefits that you will receive regardless. Over the course of your travel experience, you will gain new perspectives as you come across new cultures. We often do not realize how much culture plays a role in our daily lives until we leave. Programs often prepare you for culture shock, which hits harder the longer you are abroad. But programs may not do as well at preparing you for what is known as reverse culture shock, which similarly hits harder the longer you've been abroad. It doesn't matter if you grew up on a farm and you visit a city or you are from a city and you visit a more rural region; you will experience culture shock and reverse culture shock either way. It does not matter where you go; what matters is the length of your trip.

Regardless of how long your trip is, you will come across people with different life experiences from your own and you will also have flexibility around what you do and when. When I went on my service trip, the coordinators consistently told us that we had to be flexible. Life can be unpredictable, and in some regions of the world, the weather affects daily life a lot more than you may be used to. For example, in many countries in Central and South America, the weather goes through yearly cycles of the rainy season and the dry season. During the rainy season, it often rains in the afternoon, meaning many people use the morning to get outdoor work done. It is also a common experience for power outages to occur. Stepping out of your comfort zone and sometimes away from modern conveniences in the way you’re used to them forces adaptability that’s rarely used anymore. When infrastructure is less reliable than what we’re used to, we develop a deeper appreciation for the conveniences that we often take for granted.

If you have the opportunity, traveling independently provides you with more flexibility over where you go and when. In addition, it also teaches you to build your confidence and resilience,  teaches you life skills and financial literacy, such as learning how much individual aspects of your trip cost and budgeting for food, experiences and souvenirs. A very valuable component of traveling Independently is the lessons you learn while doing the most mundane things. Most people come away from traveling internationally with an embarrassing or funny story from an interaction they had with someone from the local culture. This experience could have started due to a language barrier or a misunderstood cultural norm. Regardless of how it happened, you learn from each one of them. You also learn that most regular people are friendly and helpful; these experiences aren't things you can learn through a screen. The internet often stereotypes cultures, generalizes places, and amplifies beliefs that are not always true. The news, for example, often only covers stories of something horrible going on. Without other data, the news has shaped how people, especially in the generations before the internet, view certain areas, cultures and people groups. You may be reading this right now and think that in any situation where you come across these people or these regions, you wouldn't act as someone from a previous generation might. New people are not always dangerous; most aren't. If adolescence is the time when you find your sense of self, then young adulthood is when you develop your own viewpoints and perspectives. Often, you will not know how you would react to a situation until you experience it.  Experiences are far more valuable than any textbook or lecture. If a textbook or lecture gives you background knowledge, then experience gives you practice and courage.

People walking through a rain-soaked park, their colorful umbrellas brightening the otherwise gray and misty day.

You may have all the head knowledge about how to interact with other cultures, or the history of the region, or the customs and norms, but experience gives you anecdotal evidence of what actually happens in the everyday happenings of an area. 

The world is a very diverse place; there are many tribes, languages, cultures, countries, and viewpoints: you will experience something unique on your journey. You will come back at least knowing that you did something hard, challenging, valuable, and rewarding. In a period of life where society asks you to find where you belong, you have the most resources and capability to go out and discover a world beyond your own.

Culinary Misattribution: The Accuracy of Nationally Named Foods

A global feast of flavors: exploring foods with national names

Due to American obesity rates, the perception of American cuisine is often cited as being fast food or fast-casual restaurants. However, this doesn't mean that fast food and fast casual are the only things Americans eat. There are plenty of foods that can be found on American grocery store shelves that are actually from other countries. However, this can lead to many people believing that the locals from that country actually eat that same thing the same way that Americans do. Which isn’t always the case.

French Fries

For example, a frequent staple of American fast food is the French fry. It isn’t entirely known who invented the French Fry. There is disagreement about if they were invented in Paris sometime before 1789 or in Belgium in 1781. However, French fries don't have to originate in France to get the “French” title. It is possible that the fries are named after how they are prepared. In cooking, cutting them into long, thin, uniform strips is known as Frenching, among a few other names. There is also a theory that Americans deployed to Belgium in World War I, heard the French-speaking Belgians and misattributed the local pommes frites as French fries. There are a few other theories about the origin of French fries, but these are the common

ones that relate to France. The French and French-speaking Belgians do not call the food “French Fries”. Instead, they say “pommes frites” or “fried potatoes” in English. There are plenty of other examples where, if a national food exists and is named after the country, such as French Fries, the country of origin does not use the national adjective. 

Swiss cheese is an umbrella term of sorts. The Swiss cheese most people think of with the big holes in it is made with raw cows’ milk from cows living in the Alpine Valleys. This is known as Emmental AOP.  Swiss cheesemakers also have a variety that doesn't have holes.  In addition,  Americans have made a few varieties that are American inventions; these are known as Baby Swiss and Lacy Swiss. The holes in Swiss cheese occur during the cheese-making process, where the cheese is aged and bacteria release carbon dioxide trapped inside the cheese. 

On some occasions, the food itself may be named after a culture, but it is misattributed entirely.

It is believed that a common baking technique for Danish pastries actually came from Austrian bakers In the 1850s.  it should be noted that in Denmark, the pastries are called wienerbrød, directly translating into English as “Vienna Bread”. While in Austrian German, the pastries are referred to as either Kopenhagener Plunder or Dänischer Plunder, translated as “Copenhagen pastry” or “Danish pastry” in English.

Russian tea cakes are another example of a food not coming from the country attributed to it. it is not known where the recipe for Russian tea cakes came from. However, their appearance resembles that of other cookies from the region. These similar cookies are often enjoyed with a cup of afternoon tea.  In addition, “Russian tea parties” became popular for fundraising events in the United States during the 19th century. Russian Tea Parties were very popular with upper-class Americans in the 1880s. During these “tea parties”, what we now call Russian tea cakes would often be served.  It is possible that the dessert was named after the party where it was served.

Russian Tea Cakes

It should be noted that there were Arab and Turkish predecessors to Russian tea cakes. In Turkish, these are called kurabiye. These Arab and Turkish desserts still exist today and are still popular. Mexico has its own take on this dessert that they got from Spain (that got it from the Turks), known as polvorónes. During the Cold War in the mid-20th century, American authors noticed that Mexico made the dessert for Weddings. They took this information and named the dessert “Mexican Wedding Cookies”, completely separate from Mexico, the country. In Russia, the closest version of this dessert is either pryanik – a soft, spiced honey gingerbread or korzhik – a hard sour-cream biscuit. From 1881 and 1914, roughly 3.2 million people left the Russian Empire, and most migrated to the U.S. During this time, Russian Tea, the cakes, and the parties migrated, became popular, and deviated from their European immigrant roots. Given that Russian Tea Cakes resembled other desserts in the region, it could be an instance where the original European recipe was actually from a non-Russian people group, but then American cookbooks Russified it, and this went unnoticed. As Russia has been in control of a huge landmass since 1700, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to believe. This is a story of misattribution in favor of marketing and possibly miscommunication over the centuries.

If a food is not consumed often by the culture it’s named after, it could have come from a local culinary invention to cater to the local taste. This was

French Toast, a staple of American Breakfast

the case with Russian Tea Cakes. But many foods are pure inventions of American cookbooks. For example, French salad dressing, Italian salad dressing, and Italian seasoning were all American inventions to replicate the “taste” of France and Italy. Even French Toast, in its modern form, is an American culinary invention.

American "Burger Sauce" found in European markets

This replication process happens in other cultures as well. In Europe, there is a whole fast-food marketing industry around American-branded products that Europeans actually invented to cater to European tastes. In the American market, there are plenty of foods that are mislabeled to cater to the idea of the food being exotic to make it more interesting on the store shelf. There are many examples of this, including “German chocolate cake” and Swiss Miss, which are from Texas and Wisconsin, respectively.

In the modern day, we have access to more food options than ever before in history. This is true almost anywhere across the globe due to increased globalization and trade. The result has been a desire to connect with peoples from entirely different cultures.  In the age of social media and especially with the rise of AI, I believe that we as people are trying to seek out authenticity more and more every day.  Food is the center of our lives as it provides us with fuel, community, and strength. People underestimate how much local taste contributes to foods that claim they are from another culture.  Try a Chinese food restaurant that is in the United States; many dishes on that menu are purely American inventions, as you would not find them in China. In places such as Vietnam, they give out two different menus. One is in Vietnamese and has all of the local dishes on it in their spicy authenticity. The other menu is in English, and the dishes on it are not as spicy. This is done to cater to foreigners’ expectations and taste palettes.

There is only so much authenticity you feel like you'll get when you are not in the same environment and atmosphere as the locals whom you believe are eating dishes named after them in your language. While this is true for many names, there are a few foods named after their region of origin where the locals actually consume the food often.  This article has focused on a few such examples, like Swiss cheese. But there are others such as English muffins, Belgian waffles, and Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt actually extends beyond Greece, where it is commonly consumed in the surrounding regions of the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and the Middle East. By understanding how national foods got their name,  people can better prepare for when they travel and engage in culinary discussions.