The Discipline of Western Supremacy: Modes of Foreign Relations and Political Economy, Volume III

Concluding the acclaimed and award-winning trilogy on 'Modes of Foreign Relations and Political Economy', this is a magisterial historical sociology of International Relations theory.

In The Discipline of Western Supremacy Kees van der Pijl argues that, from the late European Middle Ages, Anglophone thinkers articulated an imperial world-view which was adopted by aspirant elites elsewhere. Nation-state formation under the auspices of the English-speaking West has henceforth informed thinking about international affairs. After decolonisation the study of comparative politics continued to develop under those same auspices as part of a comprehensive framework.

This book, the first of its kind, aims to provide a complete overview of mainstream International Relations as a set of theories which translate Western supremacy into intellectual hegemony.

Kees van der Pijl is a Fellow of the Centre for Global Political Economy and Professor Emeritus at the University of Sussex. His books include The Foreign Encounter in Myth and Religion (Pluto, 2010), the Deutscher prize-winning Nomads, Empires, States (Pluto, 2007), Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq (Pluto, 2006) and The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class (new edition, 2012).