The zen of international relations

IR theory from East to West

Edited by
Stephen Chan, Peter Mandaville, Roland Bleiker

Palgrave Macmillan

2001

Abstract

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.