The ancient Indian text of
Kautilya’s Arthasastra
comes forth as a valuable non-Western resource for understanding contemporary International Relations (IR). However,
Kautilya’s Arthasastra
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 Arthasastra
which could retrieve its ‘alternative assumptions’ and ‘unconventional traits’. This book attempts to enable
Kautilya’s Arthasastra
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 Arthasastra
’ and ‘Eurocentric IR’. The overall exploratory venture leads to a Kautilyan non-Western eclectic theory of IR – a theory which moderately assimilates miscellaneousresearch traditions of Eurocentric IR, and, in addition, delivers a few innovative features that could potentially uplift not only Indian IR, but also Global IR.
Shahi
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Weitere Infos & Material
1. Prelude.- 2. Kautilya’s Arthasastra: A Philosophical Reconstruction.- 3. Kautilya Meets Buddha: Arthasastra between the Realpolitik and Moralpolitik of Asoka’s Mauryan Empire.- 4. Kautilya Reincarnated: Steering Arthasastra toward an Eclectic Theory of International Relations.- 5. Postlude.
Deepshikha Shahi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, India. She previously studied at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research/Käte Hamburger-Kolleg, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She is the author of
Advaita as a Global International Relations Theory
.