Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory

Description

The ancient Indian text of Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra comes forth as a valuable non-Western resource for understanding contemporary International Relations (IR). However, Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra largely suffers from the problem of ‘presentism’, whereby present-day assumptions of the dominant theoretical models of Classical Realism and Neorealism are read back into it, thereby disrupting open reflections on Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra which could retrieve its ‘alternative assumptions’ and ‘unconventional traits’. This book attempts to enable Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra to break free from the problem of presentism – it does so by juxtaposing the elements of continuity and change that showed up at different junctures of the life-history of both ‘Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra’ and ‘Eurocentric IR’. The overall exploratory venture leads to a Kautilyan non-Western eclectic theory of IR – a theory which moderately assimilates miscellaneous research traditions of Eurocentric IR, and, in addition, delivers a few innovative features that could potentially uplift not only Indian IR, but also Global IR. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Prelude (Deepshikha Shahi)....Pages 1-12 Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra: A Philosophical Reconstruction (Deepshikha Shahi)....Pages 13-56 Kautilya Meets Buddha: Arthaśāstra Between the Realpolitik and Moralpolitik of Aśoka’s Mauryan Empire (Deepshikha Shahi)....Pages 57-93 Kautilya Reincarnated: Steering Arthaśāstra Toward an Eclectic Theory of International Relations (Deepshikha Shahi)....Pages 95-126 Postlude (Deepshikha Shahi)....Pages 127-143 Back Matter ....Pages 145-167