Western-Centric Moments in Homegrown IR Theories: Dependency, Chinese and African Schools

Year 2024, Volume: 13 Issue: 1, 1 - 22, 24.01.2024

Engin Sune

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.1413405

Abstract

The modern international system has been shaped by long-standing historical
practices of unequal power relations, which have positioned the Western world
at the center of the political universe. Due to the centrality of the Global North
in the international system, any IR theory that aims to portray a true picture
of the “globe” necessarily situates the West at the center of scientific inquiry.
Furthermore, the form of universality generated by Western hegemony has
been diffused throughout the world over centuries, spreading Western political
institutions, economic structures, and ideological norms in an uneven setting.
As a result, the social structures of the Global South have developed through an
uneven form of relationship and dialectical interaction with the West. Therefore,
homegrown IR theories, which uncover local political, philosophical, or cultural
motives as sources for theory-making, in fact, concentrate on stratified forms of
the universal reality that is diffused through the uneven spread of Western social
structures. In this sense, there is a Western-centric moment in any homegrown
IR theory. Accordingly, this article develops a scientific realist account of the
structure/agent relationship in order to analyze the material grounds of Westerncentrism
in the field of international politics and to evaluate the role of non-
Western actors. Additionally, it critically evaluates distinctive homegrown
theories produced on three different continents to reveal the aforementioned
Western-centric moments in these theoretical initiatives. Namely, the Dependency
School of Latin America, the Chinese School of International Relations, and the
African School are respectively scrutinized to disclose the embedded Westerncentrism
in these theoretical initiatives

Keywords

Western-centrism, Scientific Realism, Dependency School, Chinese School, African School

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