INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Need to Decolonize International Relations

In light of the history of International Relations, is there a need to decolonize the discipline?

Introduction

International relations are the business and diplomatic relations between and among nations. International relations are a field of public policy which includes positive as well as normative elements in the formations of foreign policy of a particular state. However, the history or international relations can be traced back from the time of Greek historian Thucydides (460 BC - 395 BC), this became a distinct academic field in the early 20th century. The requirement of decolonizing the discipline of International Relations has linkages with the transformation of the world order. As a matter of fact, globalization has come to from systemic procedures of world order. However, the gradual transformation of the world order from imperial to international and further from international to the global world order is highly questionable. The transformation of the world over the period of time remained polarized (Buzan et. al., 2010, pp. 197-220).

The transformation of world order does not bring any corresponding transformation in the ideas, techniques, theories and languages. However, this one sided transformation gives birth to two significant problems. First, to what degree the today's world is non colonial? Second, to what amount the world order is accountable for the transformable concepts?

As a matter of fact, in the light of these two issues, I want to argue that the incumbent world order follows the concepts of imperialism consisting of neo-colonial type of politics, moreover, the language theories and concepts remained inculcated with the imperial and colonial policies. Thus, it is vital to decolonize International Relations as soon as possible.

Discussion History of International Relations

The history of international relations has deep roots with the international history. However, it can be traced back to 3500 BC, where the most of scholars and historians worked on this broad domain. The inception of international relations from the concept of national sovereignty has links with the aftermath of Peas of Westphalia in 1648. On initial stages, the prime focus of international relation was on interactions, peace and war, of self-governing nations, this inculcates their foreign policies. With the passage of time, the field of international relations has travelled a long path and now has implications beyond the state to state relations. As a matter of fact, the international relations, at the spur of the moment, is not just confined with the roles of states, military pacts (such as NATO), and other intergovernmental organizations (such as the UN). But today's international relations have due connections and impacts over the international non-governmental organizations and other organizations operating globally (Watson, 2012).

The paradigm shift beyond the traditional diplomatic history by acknowledging the contacts between home and foreign policy as well as the result of economic factors, ideologies and by understanding the details of international relations, it has covered long miles of its history. There is an assumption that the behaviour of the state is the principal focus of analysis; however, today's ...