Non-Western International Relations Theory: Perspectives On and Beyond Asia (Politics in Asia)

253 Pages·2010·1.16 MB·English

by  Amitav Acharya

Non-Western International
Relations Theory
Given that the world has moved well beyond the period of Western colonialism,
and clearly into a durable period in which non-Western cultures have gained their
political autonomy, it is long overdue that non-Western voices had a higher profile
in debates about international relations, not just as disciples of Western schools of
thought, but as inventors of their own approaches. Western IR theory has had the
advantage of being the first in the field, and has developed many valuable insights,
but few would defend the position that it captures everything we need to know
about world politics.
In this book, Acharya and Buzan introduce non-Western IR traditions to
a Western IR audience, and challenge the dominance of Western theory. An
international team of experts reinforces existing criticisms that IR theory is
Western-focused and therefore misrepresents and misunderstands much of world
history by introducing the reader to non-Western traditions, literature and histories
relevant to how IR is conceptualized.
Including case studies on Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, Southeast Asian,
Indian and Islamic IR this book redresses the imbalance and opens up a cross-
cultural comparative perspective on how and why thinking about IR has developed
in the way it has. As such, it will be invaluable reading for both Western and Asian
audiences interested in international relations theory.
Amitav Acharya is Professor of International Politics at American University,
USA.
Barry Buzan is Professor of International Relations at the London School of
Economics, UK.

Non-Western International
Relations Theory
Perspectives on and beyond Asia
Edited by Amitav Acharya and
Barry Buzan
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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© 2010 editorial selection and matter, Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan;
individual chapters, the contributors.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Non-Western international relations theory : perspectives on and
beyond Asia / edited by Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan.
1. International relations—Study and teaching—Asia. 2. International
relations—Study and teaching—Islamic countries. I. Acharya, Amitav. II.
Buzan, Barry.
JZ1238.A78N66 2010
327.101—dc22 2009038705
ISBN 0-203-86143-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–47473–6 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–47474–4 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–86143–4 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–47473–3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–47474–0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–86143–1 (ebk)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
List of contributors viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Why is there no non-Western international relations theory?
An introduction 1
AMITAV ACHARYA AND BARRY BUZAN
2 Why is there no Chinese international relations theory? 26
YAQING QIN
3 Why are there no non-Western theories of international
relations? The case of Japan 51
TAKASHI INOGUCHI
4 Why is there no non-Western international relations theory?
Reflections on and from Korea 69
CHAESUNG CHUN
5 Re-imagining IR in India 92
NAVNITA CHADHA BEHERA
6 Southeast Asia: Theory between modernization and tradition? 117
ALAN CHONG
7 Perceiving Indonesian approaches to international relations
theory 148
LEONARD C. SEBASTIAN AND IRMAN G. LANTI
8 International relations theory and the Islamic worldview 174
SHAHRBANOU TADJBAKHSH
9 World history and the development of non-Western international
relations theory 197
BARRY BUZAN AND RICHARD LITTLE
10 Conclusion: On the possibility of a non-Western international
relations theory 221
AMITAV ACHARYA AND BARRY BUZAN
Index 239
Illustrations
Figure
5.1 The theoretical endeavours of Indian IR 98
Tables
2.1 Books in the five translation series 30
2.2 IR-related articles in World Economics and Politics (up to 1989) 33
2.3 IR-related articles in World Economics and Politics (WEP)
and European Studies (ES) (since 1990) 34
6.1 Survey of Southeast Asia-related international relations ‘theory’
and ‘issue/area studies’ coverage in Contemporary Southeast
Asia 1979–2005 130
Contributors
Amitav Acharya is Professor of International Relations and Chair of the
University’s ASEAN Studies Center at American University, USA.
Navnita C. Behera is Professor, Department of Political Science, University of
Delhi, India
Barry Buzan is Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the
London School of Economics, UK and honorary Professor at Copenhagen and
Jilin Universities.
Alan Chong is Assistant Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Chaesung Chun is Associate Professor in the Department of International
Relations at Seoul National University, Korea.
Takashi Inoguchi is Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is
currently serving as the President of the University of Niigata Prefecture.
Irman G. Lanti is Program Manager, Deepening Democracy, United Nations
Development Program, Indonesia.
Yaqing Qin is Executive Vice-President and Professor of International Studies at
the China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), and Vice-President of the China
National Association for International Studies.
Leonard C. Sebastian is Head of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor
at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore.
Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh is the Director of the Program for Peace and Human
Security at L’Institut d’ Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris.
Acknowledgements
The original idea for this book project came from conversations between the edi-
tors, which started in the early 1990s. Acharya’s work on Third World and Asian
security led him to realize the striking lack of fit between his subject areas and
international relations theory (IRT). Buzan’s sporadic engagements with Asia left
him with the impression that there was little if any indigenous development of IRT
there. In addition, his collaborative work with Richard Little underlined to him the
dependence of much IRT on a specifically Western history.
Six of the chapters of this book (China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia and earlier
versions of the introduction and the conclusion) were first published together as a
special issue of the journal, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific (vol.7, no.3,
2007). We would like to thank the editor of the journal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto,
for organizing the review process for the special issue, and the journal’s publisher,
Oxford University Press, for giving us permission to reproduce those articles here.
Stephanie Rogers at Routledge deserves special appreciation for encouraging us
to turn the special issue into a book with the addition of four new chapters (South
Korea, Indonesia, Islamic IRT, and world history), along with a revised introduc-
tion and conclusion.
We are also grateful to the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (now
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies) at the Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore, where Acharya was deputy director and head of research,
for sponsoring a conference on the theme of the book on 11–12 July 2005. Kanti
Bajpai and Tan See Seng offered valuable comments on the papers during the con-
ference. For editorial assistance to Acharya, we thank Shanshan Wang, a doctoral
student at American University.
Amitav Acharya, Washington DC,
and Barry Buzan, London, 2009