The Zen of International Relations : IR Theory From East to West

The essays in this provocative collection challenge the epistemological bases of international relations theory. Scholars from the Middle East and Asia explore the way different cultures represent history, relations of power, and the place of "others"—including the West itself—in the systems of stories created to understand the world. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: Within International Relations Itself, a New Culture Rises Up....Pages 1-14 Front Matter....Pages 15-15 Western (?) Stories of War Origins....Pages 17-36 Forget IR Theory....Pages 37-66 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 Seven Types of Ambiguity in Western International Relations Theory and Painful Steps Towards Right Ethics....Pages 69-78 A Story Beyond Telos: Redeeming the Shield of Achilles for a Realism of Rights in IR....Pages 79-98 Stories of Priam and Job, the Slaughter of Their Families, and Twenty Theses on the Suggestiveness of Good for the Person of IR....Pages 99-126 Front Matter....Pages 127-127 Can a Declined Civilisation be Reconstructed? Islamic ‘Civilisation’ or ‘Civilised’ Islam?....Pages 129-156 An Islamic Perspective on Non-Alignment: Iranian Foreign Policy in Theory and Practice....Pages 157-174 Front Matter....Pages 175-175 East-West Stories of War and Peace: Neorealist Claims in Light of Ancient Chinese Philosophy....Pages 177-201 Selling Culture: Ancient Chinese Conceptions of ‘the Other’ in Legends....Pages 202-221 The Zen Master’s Story and an Anatomy of International Relations Theory....Pages 222-243 Back Matter....Pages 244-254 The new millennium can only be a time of true globalization if different histories and systems of understanding the world are appreciated. The authors unveil significant studies to do with epistemological debates in International Relations, and give detailed middle and far-eastern examples of how different cultures have used story-telling as a means of understanding what is outside and around. Especially provocative is the Chinese idea of the West as an 'Other', as atypical and, indeed, inscrutable, to the extent of not needing scrutiny at all.