The Idea of the “Road” in International Relations Theory

Abstract

A pressing question in international relations IR theory today is how to overcome its Western-centric character. Recent articulations of a non- or post-Western IR theory offer a significant step forward; nonetheless, a Westernmade critical method still prevents scholars from going beyond the West in a geographical and intellectual sense. This paper makes a modest proposal to compare inter-civilsational ideas, rather than theoretically de-centring IR in the West. Here, the conception of a “road” may provide a useful underpinning as a type of infrastructure, a normative concept and a cultural praxis. The “road” as a system may also provide a framework for integrating all three functions

Keywords

• International relations theory, Westcentricity, civilisations, road, road system.

References

1. As argued elsewhere, the term “Westfailure” is not the author’s original. It was coined by the late professor Susan Strange, who attributed the Westphalian world’s problems to its simultaneous development under conditions of excessive capitalism. I chose the same term for a different reason. The word “Westfailure” accurately points out how IR as a discipline has treated its Other improperly. For its original use, see Susan Strange, “The Westfailure System”, Review of International Studies, Vol. 25, No. 4 (July 1999), pp. 345-354.
2. Major works include: Arlene B. Tickner and Ole Waever (eds.), International Relations Schol- arship Around the World, London, Routledge, 2009; Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan, Non- Western International Relations Theory: Perspectives On and Beyond Asia, London, Routledge, 2009; Robbie Shilliam, International Relations and Non-Western Thought: Imperialism, Colo- nialism and Investigations of Global Modernity, London, Routledge, 2010; Aelene B. Tickner and David L. Blaney, Thinking International Relations Differently, London, Routledge, 2012.
3. Giorgio Shani, “Provincializing’ Critical Theory: Islam, Sikhism, and International Relations Theory”, Cambridge Review of International Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3 (September 2007), pp. 417-433; Giorgio Shani, “Towards a Post-Western IR: The Umma, Khalsa Panth, and Criti- cal International Relations Theory”, International Studies Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2008), pp. 722-734; Rosa Vasilaki, “Provincialising IR? Deadlocks and Prospects in Post- Western IR Theory”, Millennium, Vol. 41, No.1 (2012), pp. 3-22.
4. Cambridge University Press, 1975.
5. For instance, Fred Dallmyar’s edited book of Comparative Political Theory: An Introduc- tion, New York, Routledge, and Chistopher Goto-Jones’s chapter, “Comparative Political Thought: Beyond the Non-Western”, in Duncan Bell (ed.), Ethics and World Politics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 219-236, seem to share the opinion that human ideas are to be analysed on a comparative basis.
6. Here, Adda Bozeman’s book is a striking example. Adda Bozeman, Politics and Culture in International History, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1960.
7. English School notions, such as order, justice and international society, are based on both the Western idea of politics, and at the same time are criticisms of those ideas.
8. For instance, see, Martha Finnemore, “Norms, Culture and World Politics: Insights from Sociology’s Institutionalism”, International Organizations, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Spring 1996), pp. 325-347.

9. They include: Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West, translated by C.F. Atkinson, Two Volumes, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1932; Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History, London, Routledge, 1946/2011; Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, 12 Volumes, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1934-1961; Hajime Nakamura, A Comparative History of Ideas, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1992.
10. Linklater, The Problem of Harm in World Politics.
11. Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, translated by Ronald Latham, London, Penguin Books, 1958; Ibn Battutah, The Travels of Ibn Battutah, edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith, London, Pacador, 2003.
12. Hans Van Steenberghen, The Philosophical Movement in the Thirteenth Century: Lectures given under the Auspices of the Department of Scholastic Philosophy, The Queen’s University, Belfast, London, Nelson, 1955.
13. Hajime Nakamura, Kodai Shisou (Ancient Thought), Tokyo, Shunju-sha, 1974, p. 45.
14. Gerard Delanty, The Cosmopolitan Imagination: The Renewal of Critical Social Theory, Cam- bridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 193-198.