The Culture as a Non-Traditional Constitutive Criterion of Statehood in the International Relations

Abstract

The article examines the critical role of the culture to the process of the creation, existence, dysfunction and the failure of the west phalian state. It describes the culture as one of the most important and complex social phenomenon which influences almost every aspect of individual and social life. It analyeses the complicated and dynamic relations between culture and state and arguesthat every state has its own unique cultural personality. Then it suggests, that although culturies not acclaimed as a critierion of statehood in international law and doctrine of international relations, its importance in the state-building process and impact on the ontological and functional dimensions of the state hood justified the claim, that culture represents an additional and non-traditional criterion of statehood. It also explores different type of relations between culture and state and shows, that existing states consciously affect the cultural environment through the administrative, legal, educational and cultural policies whatlead to the the cultural homogenization of its population, what represents a nation-building process, typical of the territorialy defined, sovereign, national westphalian state