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CHEN Ching-Chang
Department Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University College of Asia Pacific Studies Position Professor |
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| Language | English |
| Publication Date | 2011/01 |
| Type | Research paper |
| Peer Review | Peer reviewed |
| Title | The absence of non-western IR theory in Asia reconsidered |
| Contribution Type | Single Work |
| Journal | INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC |
| Journal Type | Another Country |
| Publisher | OXFORD UNIV PRESS |
| Volume, Issue, Page | 11(1),pp.1-23 |
| Authorship | Lead author,Corresponding author |
| Author and coauthor | Ching-Chang Chen |
| Details | This paper critically examines an ongoing debate in International Relations (IR) as to why there is apparently no non-Western IR theory in Asia and what should be done to 'mitigate' that situation. Its central contention is that simply calling for greater incorporation of ideas from the non-West and contributions by non-Western scholars from local 'vantage points' does not make IR more global or democratic, for that would do little to transform the discipline's Eurocentric epistemological foundations. Re-envisioning IR in Asia is not about discovering or producing as many 'indigenous' national schools of IR as possible, but about reorienting IR itself towards a post-Western era that does not reinforce the hegemony of the West within (and without) the discipline. Otherwise, even if local scholars could succeed in crafting a 'Chinese (or Indian, Japanese, Korean, etc.) School', it would be no more than constructing a 'derivative discourse' of Western modernist social science. |
| DOI | 10.1093/irap/lcq014 |
| ISSN | 1470-482X |