Transforming Academic Discourse: A Case Study of International Relations as Discipline

ABSTRACT

The study of social sciences in general and the discipline of international relations (IR) in particular always remain areas of less scholarly significance, because the leading academic circles remain less inclined towards the non-Western production of knowledge in the international system. The main discussions of IR generally revolve around Western discourses and approaches to knowledge. The end of the decades-long Cold War and the elimination of the Soviet Union from world politics allowed Western academic circles to influence the production of knowledge in the international system. In this way, the production of knowledge and the promotion of knowledge have ignored non-Western academic perspectives. Contrary to conventional academic patterns, there is a need to realize the significance of non-Western literature in academia while updating the conventional academic patterns. In this scenario, this paper attempts to address the questions of the production of knowledge and promotion of knowledge on the basis of alternative perspectives and different approaches to acquiring knowledge. While emphasizing non-Western or non-American approaches to knowledge, the central theme of the paper endeavours to highlight the importance of non-Western ways of looking at world politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic discourse
• Western discourse
• international relations
• knowledge production and Chinese literature

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/occident.

2 See https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/west.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Attiq ur Rehman

Attiq ur Rehman is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Pakistan. He has expertise in the changing dimensions of Great Power politics and its impacts on global academic culture. He is currently working on the interconnectedness between the changing nature of international politics and the growth of international relations as a discipline.

Rizwana Abbasi

Rizwana Abbasi is currently serving as Head of the Department of International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies, National University of Modern Languages, Pakistan. She obtained her PhD in International Relations and Political Science at the University of Leicester in the UK, and has expertise in nuclear disarmament, nuclear deterrence in South Asia, new technologies and future challenges to sustainable peace, Pakistan and the new nuclear taboo, regional deterrence and the international arms control regime.

Azeem Gul

Azeem Gul is serving as Lecturer in the Department of International Relations, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Pakistan, and PhD candidate in the Area Study Centre for Africa, North and South America at the Quaid-i-Azam University. He has expertise in China and the US interaction in political, military and economics domains.