Claiming the International (Worlding Beyond the West)

This book explores the possibilities of alternative worldings beyond those authorized by the disciplinary norms and customs of International Relations. In response to the boundary-drawing practices of IR that privilege the historical experience and scholarly folkways of the "West," the contributors examine the limits of even critical practice within the discipline; investigate alternative archives from India, the Caribbean, the steppes of Eurasia, the Andes, China, Japan and Southeast Asia that offer different understandings of proper rule, the relationality of identities and polities, notions of freedom and imaginations of layers of sovereignty; and demonstrate distinct modes of writing and inquiry. In doing so, the book also speaks about different possibilities for IR and for inquiry without it.

Arlene B. Tickner is a Professor of International Relations in the Political Science Department at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. Her main areas of research include sociology of IR knowledge in non-core settings, Latin American security and Colombian foreign policy. She is the co-editor (with Ole Wæver) of International Relations Scholarship Around the World (2009) and (with David L. Blaney) of Thinking International Relations Differently (2012).

David L. Blaney is a Professor of Political Science at Macalester College, USA. He works on the social and political theory of IR and IPE (International Political Economy) and questions of culture and identity. His recent books (both with Naeem Inayatullah) include International Relations and the Problem of Difference (2004) and Savage Economics: Wealth, Poverty and the Temporal Walls of Capitalism (2010).