International Security and Global International Relations: Explaining State Behaviour beyond the West
Michiel Foulon
2018 - 2021
For the past twenty years, neoclassical realists have argued that they offer more complex analyses to explain foreign policy and grand strategy than a presumably more parsimonious neorealist account could. And yet, this contribution of (neoclassical) realist scholars is conventionally considered in light of mainstream or Western International Security and International Relations. One major challenge neoclassical realism faces, just as much as realism and indeed the wider discipline, lies in the Western-centric nature of much of its produced knowledge. This Western-centrism risks misrepresenting and misunderstanding much of international affairs.
This project contributes to the literature on neoclassical realism, Global/non-Western International Relations and US-China relations. It addresses the following questions: Can realists, from within their paradigm, address and contribute to the debate around the Western-centric nature of much of the International Relations and the International Security mainstream? If so, how and through what theoretical venues? What does China’s foreign policy since 1991 tell us about shortcomings in US foreign policy elites’ thinking and (Western) realist theories of foreign policy and grand strategy? How can this case contribute to a better explanation of US foreign policy and to the further development of realist theory?
Partners: Gustav Meibauer (London School of Economics and Politics Science, UK) and Jinghan Zeng (Lancaster University, UK)
Publications