This chapter examines the study of reputation in world politics and provides a model of reputation formation and evolution, emphasizing that, paradoxically, the role and relevance of reputation in global relations has been both pervasive and evasive. The chapter identifies a functional, dynamic model of reputation, and introduces the key terms of “antagonist,” “protagonist,” and “proxy” states. This model places particular emphasis on states in the context of world politics, and argues that states and their leaders indeed have reputations, but these reputations are complex and multi-dimensional. The post-WWII relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union provides an illuminating example.
