Decolonizing International Relations

The modern discipline of International Relations (IR) is largely an Anglo-American social science. It has been concerned mainly with the powerful states and actors in the global political economy and dominated by North American and European scholars. However, this focus can be seen as Eurocentrism. Decolonizing International Relations exposes the ways in which IR has consistently ignored questions of colonialism, imperialism, race, slavery, and dispossession in the non-European world. The first part of the book addresses the form and historical origins of Eurocentrism in IR. The second part examines the colonial and racialized constitution of international relations, which tends to be ignored by the discipline. The third part begins the task of retrieval and reconstruction, providing non-Eurocentric accounts of selected themes central to international relations. Critical scholars in IR and international law, concerned with the need to decolonize knowledge, have authored the chapters of this important volume. It will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, international law, and political economy, as well as those with a special interest in the politics of knowledge, postcolonial critique, international and regional historiography, and comparative politics. Contributions by: Antony Anghie, Alison J. Ayers, B. S. Chimni, James Thuo Gathii, Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Sandra Halperin, Sankaran Krishna, Mustapha Kamal Pasha, and Julian Saurin

Table of Contents:
Introduction: International Relations, Eurocentrism, and Imperialism Part I: Eurocentric Origins and Limits Chapter 1: International Relations as the Imperial Illusion; or, the Need to Decolonize IR Chapter 2: International Relations Theory and the Hegemony of Western Conceptions of Modernity Chapter 3: Liberalism, Islam, and International Relations Part II: The Colonial and Racial Constitution of the International Chapter 4: Race, Amnesia, and the Education of International Relations Chapter 5: Decolonizing the Concept of "Good Governance" Chapter 6: Dispossession through International Law: Iraq in Historical and Comparative Context Part III: Toward Decolonized Knowledge of the World and the International Chapter 7: Beyond the Imperial Narrative: African Political Historiography Revisited Chapter 8: Mind, Body, and Gut! Elements of a Postcolonial Human Rights Discourse Chapter 9: Retrieving "Other" Visions of the Future: Sri Aurobindo and the Idea of Human Unity Conclusion: Decolonizing IR: Imperatives, Possibilities, and Limitations

About the Author :
Branwen Gruffydd Jones is lecturer in the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds.

Review :
In this excellent and timely book Branwen Gruffydd Jones and collaborators present a bold and direct challenge to conventional and critical International Relations theory. Such is the breadth of scholarship, intellectual sophistication, and analytical rigor of this collection that it will be difficult to easily dismiss or evade this challenge. The book succeeds in uncovering long-dominant assumptions in International Relations scholarship and in devising strategies toward decolonizing the study of International Relations. Emerging at the height of colonialism, International Relations is not coincidentally but constitutively Eurocentric and imperialist. This volume dares to explore the politics of IR's imperialism, the imperative of moving beyond it, and possibilities for doing so. A cogent, accessible, and timely text.