Giorgio Shani PhD (London) is Professor of Politics and International Relations at International Christian University (ICU), Japan, where he served as Department Chair (2017-2021) and is currently a Visiting Professor in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where he was Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies (CIS) (2016-17). He has served as President of the Asia-Pacific region and Chair of the Global Development Section of the International Studies Association (ISA) and is currently Chair of RC43 "Religion and Politics" of the International Political Science Association (IPSA).
His main research interests focus on Religion and Nationalism; Human Security; and "Post-Western" International Relations Theory with reference to South Asia and Japan. He is author of Sikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age (Routledge 2008) and Religion, Identity and Human Security (Routledge 2014); co-author of Sikh Nationalism (Cambridge University Press 2022); and co-editor of Protecting Human Security in a Post 9/11 World (Palgrave 2007), Religion and Nationalism in Asia (Routledge 2019) and Rethinking Peace (Rowman and Littlefield 2019). More information can be found here: http://www.routledge.com/authors/i7881-giorgio-shani <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Giorgio_Shani">Giorgio Shani on ResearchGate</a> https://rotaryicu.wordpress.com/faculty/shani/
This important volume provides a clear, concise and comprehensive guide to the history of Sikh na... more This important volume provides a clear, concise and comprehensive guide to the history of Sikh nationalism from the late nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on A. D. Smith's ethno-symbolic approach, Gurharpal Singh and Giorgio Shani use a new integrated methodology to understanding the historical and sociological development of modern Sikh nationalism. By emphasising the importance of studying Sikh nationalism from the perspective of the nation-building projects of India and Pakistan, the recent literature on religious nationalism and the need to integrate the study of the diaspora with the Sikhs in South Asia, they provide a fresh approach to a complex subject. Singh and Shani evaluate the current condition of Sikh nationalism in a globalised world and consider the lessons the Sikh case offers for the comparative study of ethnicity, nations and nationalism.
This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian c... more This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian context, with a focus on East, South and South East Asia.
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian c... more This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian context, with a focus on East, South and South East Asia.
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
Rethinking Peace Discourse, Memory, Translation, and Dialogue, 2019
Long considered a subfield of international relations and political science, Peace Studies has so... more Long considered a subfield of international relations and political science, Peace Studies has solidified its place as an interdisciplinary field in its own right with a canon, degree programs, journals, conferences, and courses taught on the subject. Internationally renowned centers offering programs on Peace and Conflict Studies can be found on every continent. Almost all of the scholars working in the field, however, are united by an aspiration: attaining Peace, whether “positive” or “negative.” The telos of peace, however, itself remains undefined and elusive, notwithstanding the violence committed in its name.
This edited volume critically interrogates the field of peace studies, considering its assumptions, teleologies, canons, influence, enmeshments with power structures, biases, and normative ends. We highlight four interrelated tendencies in peace studies: hypostasis (strong essentializing tendencies), teleology (its imagined “end”), normativity (the set of often utopian and Eurocentric discourses that guide it), and enterprise (the attempt to undertake large projects, often ones of social engineering to attain this end). The chapters in this volume reveal these tendencies while offering new paths to escape them.
Religion, Identity and Human Security attempts to articulate a 'post-secular' approach to Human S... more Religion, Identity and Human Security attempts to articulate a 'post-secular' approach to Human Security suited to a globalizing and increasingly post-Western world. It is divided into two sections. The first section provides the theoretical framework for re-conceptualizing Critical Human Security along post-secular lines. The second attempts to apply this framework to three sites of insecurity: the EU, South Asia and Japan. It will primarily be of interest to students of International Relations, Critical Security Studies and Religion and Politics.
ikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age examines the construction of a Sikh national identit... more ikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age examines the construction of a Sikh national identity in post-colonial India and the diaspora and explores the reasons for the failure of the movement for an independent Sikh state: Khalistan. Based on a decade of research, it is argued that the failure of the movement to bring about a sovereign, Sikh state should not be interpreted as resulting from the weakness of the ‘communal’ ties which bind members of the Sikh ‘nation’ together, but points to the transformation of national identity under conditions of globalization. Globalization is perceived to have severed the link between nation and state and, through the proliferation and development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), has facilitated the articulation of a transnational ‘diasporic’ Sikh identity. It is argued that this ‘diasporic’ identity potentially challenges the conventional narratives of international relations and makes the imagination of a post-Westphalian community possible. Theoretically innovative and interdisciplinary in approach, it will be primarily of interest to students of South Asian studies, political science and international relations, as well as to many others trying to come to terms with the continued importance of religious and cultural identities in times of rapid political, economic, social and cultural change.
The failure of the US-led coalition to achieve its stated objectives of removing the threat of te... more The failure of the US-led coalition to achieve its stated objectives of removing the threat of terror illustrates the ineffectiveness of the national security paradigm in addressing the principal sources of insecurity in our globalizing, post 9/11 world. However, the concept of 'human security', which seeks to replace the state with the individual as the primary locus of security, remains vague, conceptually fuzzy and difficult to put into practice. In an effort to address these limitations and to suggest ways in which the concept of human security can be protected in the light of the US-led 'war on terror', this unique volume brings together leading international scholars from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America to critically examine human security in the post 9/11 environment and to suggest a new research agenda in critical human security studies. Challenging and provocative, this book is a timely contribution to understanding the post 9/11 era.
This article seeks to contribute to the development of post-western international relations (IR) ... more This article seeks to contribute to the development of post-western international relations (IR) by engaging with the political writings and complex legacy of the Bengali Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). It will show how Tagore's critique of the "nation," most presciently delivered in a lecture delivered in Japan as the First World War unfolded, unlocks the potential of "Asia as method." Tagore was an anti-imperialist but cannot be described as a nationalist since he was "critical" of the ideology of nationalism which he considered to be both pernicious and alien to "Asian" societies. His attempt to transcend the imaginary of the nationstate led him to posit "Asia" as a "moral imaginary" to counter the Westphalian imaginary of IR. However, this imaginary, based to a large extent on Orientalist readings of Asian history and civilization, was co-opted by the main object of his critique: the nation-state. It subsequently was subordinated to, and helped legitimize, Japanese imperial ambitions. Rather than seeing Tagore's flawed imaginary as merely highlighting the "deadlocks" of post-western IR theory, I argue that it can be seen as unlocking its "potential" by positing Asia as an "imaginary anchoring point" with which to critique the Westphalian imaginary, and methodological nationalism, of IR.
The unprovoked invasion of the sovereign state of Ukraine by Russia has sparked fears of a global... more The unprovoked invasion of the sovereign state of Ukraine by Russia has sparked fears of a global conflagration the like of which we haven't seen since World War II. Echoes of the war can be gauged by the stated aim of the intervention: to 'demilitarize' and 'denazify' a Ukrainian regime committing 'genocide' against a Russian-speaking minority. These claims have proved baseless but are hardly unprecedented in the light of recent 'humanitarian' interventions in other parts of the world, in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. What is urgently required is a new engagement with normative claims from different cosmological traditions in order to construct an emancipatory post-western world order which is based on serious and emphatic engagement with “other” traditions and in which territorial expansionism has no place.
'Critical' International Relations (IR) began as a strongly emancipatory and normative project. ... more 'Critical' International Relations (IR) began as a strongly emancipatory and normative project. It sought to challenge the emerging neo-'realist' and neo-liberal hegemony in IR by contesting the nature of its ontological and epistemological claims which would serve to reify and reproduce existing power relations in a highly unequal world structured by capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and the nation-state. However, we argue in our recent article "Rethinking Emancipation in a Critical IR: Normativity, Cosmology, and Pluriversal Dialogue" that it seems to have lost its initial focus and risks forgoing its emancipatory potential.
This article will attempt to 'provincialise' (Chakrabarty 2000) the 'secular cosmology' of Intern... more This article will attempt to 'provincialise' (Chakrabarty 2000) the 'secular cosmology' of International Relations (IR) through an examination of the relational cosmology of dharma. We argue that IR is grounded in 'secularised' Judaeo-Christian assumptions concerning time, relations between self and other, order and the sovereign state that set the epistemic limits of the discipline. These assumptions will be 'provincialised' through an engagement with dharma based on a reading of The Mahābharāta, one of the oldest recorded texts in the world. We argue that the concept of dharma offers a mode of understanding the multi-dimensionality of human existence without negating any of its varied, contradictory expressions. By de-constructing notions of self and other, dharma illustrates how all beings are related to one another in a moral, social and cosmic order premised on human agency, that flows from 'inside-out' rather than 'outside in' and that is governed by a heterogenous understanding of time. This order places limits on the state's exercise of power in a given territory by making the state responsible for creating social conditions that would enable all beings to realise their potential, thus qualifying the principle of state sovereignty which remains the foundation of the 'secular cosmology of IR'.
This article seeks to reconceptualise emancipation in critically theorising International Relatio... more This article seeks to reconceptualise emancipation in critically theorising International Relations (IR) by developing 'thin' and 'thick' versions of normativity and applying them as conditions for a pluriversal dialogue between different cosmologies. We start with the premise that 'critical IR' is both Eurocentric and a-normative, and argue that a normative engagement with critical discourses both inside and outside the West is necessary to recapture its emancipatory promise. Drawing on the work of Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Jacques Derrida, we develop 'thin' and 'thick' versions of normativity. The former, we argue, operates as a critical corrective of thick normative positions, reclaiming their openness to difference, while not making substantive moral or political claims itself. We then apply these version of normativity to examine the possibility of a global pluriversal dialogue between different cosmologies. Cosmologies, we argue, refer to sets of ontological and epistemological claims about the human condition that are inherently normative. 'Thin' normativity applied to the 'thick' claims of cosmologies prevents the essentialisation and hierarchisation of cosmological difference(s) by revealing and de-constructing the latter's potentially discriminatory, exclusionary, and violent tendencies. In so doing, it facilitates a global inter-cosmological dialogue which we regard as the objective of a post-western, critical IR.
This contribution, in answer to the question posed in this collection 'right-wing nationalism, po... more This contribution, in answer to the question posed in this collection 'right-wing nationalism, populism, and religion: what are the connections and why?', attempts to account for the development of Hindu nationalism in India as articulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hindu nationalism represents a fusion of conservative right-wing nationalism and religion, which has proved highly successful at the ballot box. It aims at the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra or state. Central to Hindu nationalism is the idea of Hindutva, which interpellates all Indians as belonging to a Hindu civilisation based on a common pan-Indian Hindu national identity. Muslims occupy the position of a 'constitutive outside' enabling the construction of a Hindu Rashtra; they remain 'enemies' to be either excluded or assimilated to a Hindu national culture. Consequently, they remain targets of government legislation. This will be illustrated with reference to the recent abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, the building of a temple to the Hindu God Ram in Ayodhya, the Citizen Amendment Act, and the government of India's responses to COVID-19. India under Modi, it concludes, is on the way to becoming a Hindu Rashtra.
In my brief contribution, I will critically examine an attempt to pluralize IR by accommodating g... more In my brief contribution, I will critically examine an attempt to pluralize IR by accommodating geo-cultural difference as represented by ‘global’ IR, before introducing the concept of cosmologies. Cosmologies, I argue, challenge hegemonic iterations of geo-cultural difference in IR by interrogating the relationship between territory, culture and difference; the ‘religious’ and the ‘secular;’ and humans and the environment. I will conclude by suggesting that 'post-western IR' should focus on inter-cosmological relations in a pluriverse.
The study of religion and international religions has witnessed an exponential growth in recent d... more The study of religion and international religions has witnessed an exponential growth in recent decades. Courses and programs exploring the complex entanglements between faith and global politics have likewise mushroomed around the world. Despite this ferment, reflections on teaching religion and international relations have so far lagged behind. This forum seeks to remedy this general silence. It brings together a diverse range of scholars from a multiplicity of national, religious, method-ological, and theoretical backgrounds who teach across a variety of different geographical settings including North America, Europe, and East Asia. Contributors reflect on three broad themes. First, how do we engage with the contested character of religion as a category of analysis and practice , and with the multidisciplinary nature of its study? Second, how does the context within which we operate-be it geographical, cultural, institutional , or historical-influence and shape who, what, and how we teach? Third, how do we address the important and, at times, contentious personal and ethical challenges that our research and teaching on religion and politics inevitably raises in the classroom? Resumen: El estudio de la religión y de las religiones internacionales ha sido testigo de un crecimiento exponencial en las últimas décadas. De igual manera, los cursos y programas en los que se exploran los entre-lazamientos entre la fe y la política mundial han proliferado en todo el mundo. Pese a esta agitación, las reflexiones sobre la enseñanza de la re-ligión y las relaciones internacionales han quedado, hasta el momento, rezagadas. En este foro se apunta a poner fin a este silencio general-izado. En él, se reúne a diferentes académicos de una gran variedad de Bettiza, Gregorio et al. (2019) Teaching Religion and International Relations: Disciplinary, Pedagogical, and Personal Reflections. International Studies Perspectives, contextos nacionales, religiosos, metodológicos y teóricos que enseñan en distintos entornos geográficos, incluidos América del Norte, Europa y Asia del este. Los colaboradores reflexionan sobre tres grandes ejes temáticos. En primer lugar, ¿cómo interactuamos con el controvertido carácter de la religión como categoría de análisis y práctica, y con la naturaleza multidis-ciplinaria de su estudio? En segundo lugar, ¿de qué manera el contexto-ya sea geográfico, cultural, institucional o histórico-en el cual oper-amos influye y moldea a quiénes, qué y cómo enseñamos? En tercer lugar, ¿cómo abordamos los importantes y, en ocasiones, contenciosos desafíos personales y éticos que nuestra investigación y enseñanza sobre religión y política inevitablemente plantean en el aula? Extrait: L'étude de la religion et des relations internationales a connu une croissance exponentielle au cours des dernières décennies. Des cours et programmes décortiquant les relations complexes entre la foi et la poli-tique internationale ont également proliféré dans le monde entier. Malgré cette effervescence, les réflexions sur l'enseignement de la religion et des relations internationales se font toujours attendre. Cette tribune cherche à répondre à ce silence général. Elle réunit plusieurs spécialistes de na-tionalité, religion, méthode et théorie différentes qui enseignent dans une grande variété de pays en Amérique du nord, Europe et Asie de l'est. Les contributeurs réfléchissent sur trois grands thèmes. Premièrement, comment abordons-nous le caractère contesté de la religion en tant que caté-gorie d'analyse et de pratique ainsi que la nature pluridisciplinaire de son étude? Deuxièmement, comment le contexte dans lequel nous agis-sons-qu'il soit géographique, culturel, institutionnel ou historique-influence et façonne les personnes à qui nous enseignons, la matière que nous enseignons et notre méthode pédagogique? Troisièmement, comment abordons-nous les problématiques importantes et parfois contestées, personnelles et éthiques que nos recherches et notre enseignement sur la religion et la politique ne manquent pas de soulever chez nos étudiants?
This article will critically interrogate the relationship between Human Security and Ontological ... more This article will critically interrogate the relationship between Human Security and Ontological Security from a broadly postcolonial perspective. The dislocation engendered by successive waves of neo-liberal globalisation has resulted in the deracination of many of the world’s inhabitants resulting in a state of collective ‘existential anxiety’ (Giddens 1991). Under such conditions, the search for ontological security becomes paramount. However, conventional understandings of Human Security as ‘freedom from fear and want’ are unable, from a post-colonial perspective –to provide ontological security since they operate within a culturally specific, Eurocentric understanding of the ‘human’ as ‘bare life’ (Agamben 1998). It will then be argued that post-secular conceptions of Human Security (Shani 2014) by acknowledging the role which culture and religion can play in providing answers to existential questions concerning the ‘basic parameters of human life’ are better able to ‘protect’ ontological security in times of rapid global transformation given the centrality of religion to post-colonial subjectivity. This will be illustrated by the case of the global Sikh community. It will be argued that ontological, and therefore, Human Security rests on reintegrating the ‘secular’ and ‘temporal’ dimensions of Sikhi which had been severed as a result of the colonial encounter.
This important volume provides a clear, concise and comprehensive guide to the history of Sikh na... more This important volume provides a clear, concise and comprehensive guide to the history of Sikh nationalism from the late nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on A. D. Smith's ethno-symbolic approach, Gurharpal Singh and Giorgio Shani use a new integrated methodology to understanding the historical and sociological development of modern Sikh nationalism. By emphasising the importance of studying Sikh nationalism from the perspective of the nation-building projects of India and Pakistan, the recent literature on religious nationalism and the need to integrate the study of the diaspora with the Sikhs in South Asia, they provide a fresh approach to a complex subject. Singh and Shani evaluate the current condition of Sikh nationalism in a globalised world and consider the lessons the Sikh case offers for the comparative study of ethnicity, nations and nationalism.
This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian c... more This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian context, with a focus on East, South and South East Asia.
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian c... more This book re-examines the relationship between religion and nationalism in a contemporary Asian context, with a focus on East, South and South East Asia.
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
Rethinking Peace Discourse, Memory, Translation, and Dialogue, 2019
Long considered a subfield of international relations and political science, Peace Studies has so... more Long considered a subfield of international relations and political science, Peace Studies has solidified its place as an interdisciplinary field in its own right with a canon, degree programs, journals, conferences, and courses taught on the subject. Internationally renowned centers offering programs on Peace and Conflict Studies can be found on every continent. Almost all of the scholars working in the field, however, are united by an aspiration: attaining Peace, whether “positive” or “negative.” The telos of peace, however, itself remains undefined and elusive, notwithstanding the violence committed in its name.
This edited volume critically interrogates the field of peace studies, considering its assumptions, teleologies, canons, influence, enmeshments with power structures, biases, and normative ends. We highlight four interrelated tendencies in peace studies: hypostasis (strong essentializing tendencies), teleology (its imagined “end”), normativity (the set of often utopian and Eurocentric discourses that guide it), and enterprise (the attempt to undertake large projects, often ones of social engineering to attain this end). The chapters in this volume reveal these tendencies while offering new paths to escape them.
Religion, Identity and Human Security attempts to articulate a 'post-secular' approach to Human S... more Religion, Identity and Human Security attempts to articulate a 'post-secular' approach to Human Security suited to a globalizing and increasingly post-Western world. It is divided into two sections. The first section provides the theoretical framework for re-conceptualizing Critical Human Security along post-secular lines. The second attempts to apply this framework to three sites of insecurity: the EU, South Asia and Japan. It will primarily be of interest to students of International Relations, Critical Security Studies and Religion and Politics.
ikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age examines the construction of a Sikh national identit... more ikh Nationalism and Identity in a Global Age examines the construction of a Sikh national identity in post-colonial India and the diaspora and explores the reasons for the failure of the movement for an independent Sikh state: Khalistan. Based on a decade of research, it is argued that the failure of the movement to bring about a sovereign, Sikh state should not be interpreted as resulting from the weakness of the ‘communal’ ties which bind members of the Sikh ‘nation’ together, but points to the transformation of national identity under conditions of globalization. Globalization is perceived to have severed the link between nation and state and, through the proliferation and development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), has facilitated the articulation of a transnational ‘diasporic’ Sikh identity. It is argued that this ‘diasporic’ identity potentially challenges the conventional narratives of international relations and makes the imagination of a post-Westphalian community possible. Theoretically innovative and interdisciplinary in approach, it will be primarily of interest to students of South Asian studies, political science and international relations, as well as to many others trying to come to terms with the continued importance of religious and cultural identities in times of rapid political, economic, social and cultural change.
The failure of the US-led coalition to achieve its stated objectives of removing the threat of te... more The failure of the US-led coalition to achieve its stated objectives of removing the threat of terror illustrates the ineffectiveness of the national security paradigm in addressing the principal sources of insecurity in our globalizing, post 9/11 world. However, the concept of 'human security', which seeks to replace the state with the individual as the primary locus of security, remains vague, conceptually fuzzy and difficult to put into practice. In an effort to address these limitations and to suggest ways in which the concept of human security can be protected in the light of the US-led 'war on terror', this unique volume brings together leading international scholars from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America to critically examine human security in the post 9/11 environment and to suggest a new research agenda in critical human security studies. Challenging and provocative, this book is a timely contribution to understanding the post 9/11 era.
This article seeks to contribute to the development of post-western international relations (IR) ... more This article seeks to contribute to the development of post-western international relations (IR) by engaging with the political writings and complex legacy of the Bengali Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). It will show how Tagore's critique of the "nation," most presciently delivered in a lecture delivered in Japan as the First World War unfolded, unlocks the potential of "Asia as method." Tagore was an anti-imperialist but cannot be described as a nationalist since he was "critical" of the ideology of nationalism which he considered to be both pernicious and alien to "Asian" societies. His attempt to transcend the imaginary of the nationstate led him to posit "Asia" as a "moral imaginary" to counter the Westphalian imaginary of IR. However, this imaginary, based to a large extent on Orientalist readings of Asian history and civilization, was co-opted by the main object of his critique: the nation-state. It subsequently was subordinated to, and helped legitimize, Japanese imperial ambitions. Rather than seeing Tagore's flawed imaginary as merely highlighting the "deadlocks" of post-western IR theory, I argue that it can be seen as unlocking its "potential" by positing Asia as an "imaginary anchoring point" with which to critique the Westphalian imaginary, and methodological nationalism, of IR.
The unprovoked invasion of the sovereign state of Ukraine by Russia has sparked fears of a global... more The unprovoked invasion of the sovereign state of Ukraine by Russia has sparked fears of a global conflagration the like of which we haven't seen since World War II. Echoes of the war can be gauged by the stated aim of the intervention: to 'demilitarize' and 'denazify' a Ukrainian regime committing 'genocide' against a Russian-speaking minority. These claims have proved baseless but are hardly unprecedented in the light of recent 'humanitarian' interventions in other parts of the world, in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. What is urgently required is a new engagement with normative claims from different cosmological traditions in order to construct an emancipatory post-western world order which is based on serious and emphatic engagement with “other” traditions and in which territorial expansionism has no place.
'Critical' International Relations (IR) began as a strongly emancipatory and normative project. ... more 'Critical' International Relations (IR) began as a strongly emancipatory and normative project. It sought to challenge the emerging neo-'realist' and neo-liberal hegemony in IR by contesting the nature of its ontological and epistemological claims which would serve to reify and reproduce existing power relations in a highly unequal world structured by capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and the nation-state. However, we argue in our recent article "Rethinking Emancipation in a Critical IR: Normativity, Cosmology, and Pluriversal Dialogue" that it seems to have lost its initial focus and risks forgoing its emancipatory potential.
This article will attempt to 'provincialise' (Chakrabarty 2000) the 'secular cosmology' of Intern... more This article will attempt to 'provincialise' (Chakrabarty 2000) the 'secular cosmology' of International Relations (IR) through an examination of the relational cosmology of dharma. We argue that IR is grounded in 'secularised' Judaeo-Christian assumptions concerning time, relations between self and other, order and the sovereign state that set the epistemic limits of the discipline. These assumptions will be 'provincialised' through an engagement with dharma based on a reading of The Mahābharāta, one of the oldest recorded texts in the world. We argue that the concept of dharma offers a mode of understanding the multi-dimensionality of human existence without negating any of its varied, contradictory expressions. By de-constructing notions of self and other, dharma illustrates how all beings are related to one another in a moral, social and cosmic order premised on human agency, that flows from 'inside-out' rather than 'outside in' and that is governed by a heterogenous understanding of time. This order places limits on the state's exercise of power in a given territory by making the state responsible for creating social conditions that would enable all beings to realise their potential, thus qualifying the principle of state sovereignty which remains the foundation of the 'secular cosmology of IR'.
This article seeks to reconceptualise emancipation in critically theorising International Relatio... more This article seeks to reconceptualise emancipation in critically theorising International Relations (IR) by developing 'thin' and 'thick' versions of normativity and applying them as conditions for a pluriversal dialogue between different cosmologies. We start with the premise that 'critical IR' is both Eurocentric and a-normative, and argue that a normative engagement with critical discourses both inside and outside the West is necessary to recapture its emancipatory promise. Drawing on the work of Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Jacques Derrida, we develop 'thin' and 'thick' versions of normativity. The former, we argue, operates as a critical corrective of thick normative positions, reclaiming their openness to difference, while not making substantive moral or political claims itself. We then apply these version of normativity to examine the possibility of a global pluriversal dialogue between different cosmologies. Cosmologies, we argue, refer to sets of ontological and epistemological claims about the human condition that are inherently normative. 'Thin' normativity applied to the 'thick' claims of cosmologies prevents the essentialisation and hierarchisation of cosmological difference(s) by revealing and de-constructing the latter's potentially discriminatory, exclusionary, and violent tendencies. In so doing, it facilitates a global inter-cosmological dialogue which we regard as the objective of a post-western, critical IR.
This contribution, in answer to the question posed in this collection 'right-wing nationalism, po... more This contribution, in answer to the question posed in this collection 'right-wing nationalism, populism, and religion: what are the connections and why?', attempts to account for the development of Hindu nationalism in India as articulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hindu nationalism represents a fusion of conservative right-wing nationalism and religion, which has proved highly successful at the ballot box. It aims at the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra or state. Central to Hindu nationalism is the idea of Hindutva, which interpellates all Indians as belonging to a Hindu civilisation based on a common pan-Indian Hindu national identity. Muslims occupy the position of a 'constitutive outside' enabling the construction of a Hindu Rashtra; they remain 'enemies' to be either excluded or assimilated to a Hindu national culture. Consequently, they remain targets of government legislation. This will be illustrated with reference to the recent abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, the building of a temple to the Hindu God Ram in Ayodhya, the Citizen Amendment Act, and the government of India's responses to COVID-19. India under Modi, it concludes, is on the way to becoming a Hindu Rashtra.
In my brief contribution, I will critically examine an attempt to pluralize IR by accommodating g... more In my brief contribution, I will critically examine an attempt to pluralize IR by accommodating geo-cultural difference as represented by ‘global’ IR, before introducing the concept of cosmologies. Cosmologies, I argue, challenge hegemonic iterations of geo-cultural difference in IR by interrogating the relationship between territory, culture and difference; the ‘religious’ and the ‘secular;’ and humans and the environment. I will conclude by suggesting that 'post-western IR' should focus on inter-cosmological relations in a pluriverse.
The study of religion and international religions has witnessed an exponential growth in recent d... more The study of religion and international religions has witnessed an exponential growth in recent decades. Courses and programs exploring the complex entanglements between faith and global politics have likewise mushroomed around the world. Despite this ferment, reflections on teaching religion and international relations have so far lagged behind. This forum seeks to remedy this general silence. It brings together a diverse range of scholars from a multiplicity of national, religious, method-ological, and theoretical backgrounds who teach across a variety of different geographical settings including North America, Europe, and East Asia. Contributors reflect on three broad themes. First, how do we engage with the contested character of religion as a category of analysis and practice , and with the multidisciplinary nature of its study? Second, how does the context within which we operate-be it geographical, cultural, institutional , or historical-influence and shape who, what, and how we teach? Third, how do we address the important and, at times, contentious personal and ethical challenges that our research and teaching on religion and politics inevitably raises in the classroom? Resumen: El estudio de la religión y de las religiones internacionales ha sido testigo de un crecimiento exponencial en las últimas décadas. De igual manera, los cursos y programas en los que se exploran los entre-lazamientos entre la fe y la política mundial han proliferado en todo el mundo. Pese a esta agitación, las reflexiones sobre la enseñanza de la re-ligión y las relaciones internacionales han quedado, hasta el momento, rezagadas. En este foro se apunta a poner fin a este silencio general-izado. En él, se reúne a diferentes académicos de una gran variedad de Bettiza, Gregorio et al. (2019) Teaching Religion and International Relations: Disciplinary, Pedagogical, and Personal Reflections. International Studies Perspectives, contextos nacionales, religiosos, metodológicos y teóricos que enseñan en distintos entornos geográficos, incluidos América del Norte, Europa y Asia del este. Los colaboradores reflexionan sobre tres grandes ejes temáticos. En primer lugar, ¿cómo interactuamos con el controvertido carácter de la religión como categoría de análisis y práctica, y con la naturaleza multidis-ciplinaria de su estudio? En segundo lugar, ¿de qué manera el contexto-ya sea geográfico, cultural, institucional o histórico-en el cual oper-amos influye y moldea a quiénes, qué y cómo enseñamos? En tercer lugar, ¿cómo abordamos los importantes y, en ocasiones, contenciosos desafíos personales y éticos que nuestra investigación y enseñanza sobre religión y política inevitablemente plantean en el aula? Extrait: L'étude de la religion et des relations internationales a connu une croissance exponentielle au cours des dernières décennies. Des cours et programmes décortiquant les relations complexes entre la foi et la poli-tique internationale ont également proliféré dans le monde entier. Malgré cette effervescence, les réflexions sur l'enseignement de la religion et des relations internationales se font toujours attendre. Cette tribune cherche à répondre à ce silence général. Elle réunit plusieurs spécialistes de na-tionalité, religion, méthode et théorie différentes qui enseignent dans une grande variété de pays en Amérique du nord, Europe et Asie de l'est. Les contributeurs réfléchissent sur trois grands thèmes. Premièrement, comment abordons-nous le caractère contesté de la religion en tant que caté-gorie d'analyse et de pratique ainsi que la nature pluridisciplinaire de son étude? Deuxièmement, comment le contexte dans lequel nous agis-sons-qu'il soit géographique, culturel, institutionnel ou historique-influence et façonne les personnes à qui nous enseignons, la matière que nous enseignons et notre méthode pédagogique? Troisièmement, comment abordons-nous les problématiques importantes et parfois contestées, personnelles et éthiques que nos recherches et notre enseignement sur la religion et la politique ne manquent pas de soulever chez nos étudiants?
This article will critically interrogate the relationship between Human Security and Ontological ... more This article will critically interrogate the relationship between Human Security and Ontological Security from a broadly postcolonial perspective. The dislocation engendered by successive waves of neo-liberal globalisation has resulted in the deracination of many of the world’s inhabitants resulting in a state of collective ‘existential anxiety’ (Giddens 1991). Under such conditions, the search for ontological security becomes paramount. However, conventional understandings of Human Security as ‘freedom from fear and want’ are unable, from a post-colonial perspective –to provide ontological security since they operate within a culturally specific, Eurocentric understanding of the ‘human’ as ‘bare life’ (Agamben 1998). It will then be argued that post-secular conceptions of Human Security (Shani 2014) by acknowledging the role which culture and religion can play in providing answers to existential questions concerning the ‘basic parameters of human life’ are better able to ‘protect’ ontological security in times of rapid global transformation given the centrality of religion to post-colonial subjectivity. This will be illustrated by the case of the global Sikh community. It will be argued that ontological, and therefore, Human Security rests on reintegrating the ‘secular’ and ‘temporal’ dimensions of Sikhi which had been severed as a result of the colonial encounter.
Giorgio Shani (2007) ‘Provincializing’ critical theory: Islam, Sikhism and
international relation... more Giorgio Shani (2007) ‘Provincializing’ critical theory: Islam, Sikhism and international relations theory, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20:3, 417-433, DOI: 10.1080/09557570701574105
Abstract This article will attempt to ‘provincialize’ or ‘decentre’ critical theory by looking at the development of critical discourses from within the Islamic and Sikh religious traditions. Although important theological, philosophical and historical differences exist between the two communities, Islamic and Sikh narratives share a rejection of the subordination of the religious to the political and thus potentially challenge the Westphalian order. However, in the case of the Sikh Qaum, no clear distinction between ‘nation’ and ‘religion’ is possible given the strong attachment to a territorially defined ancestral homeland. This article suggests that both critical Islamic and Sikh discourses, particularly those emanating from the diaspora, are potentially compatible with the ‘discourse ethics’ of critical theory. This is, however, conditional on the recognition of the universality of their beliefs, a position incompatible with the ‘thin’ cosmopolitanism of critical theory.
Giorgio Shani (2016): Religion as security: an introduction, Critical Studies on Security, DOI: 1... more Giorgio Shani (2016): Religion as security: an introduction, Critical Studies on Security, DOI: 10.1080/21624887.2016.1221194
This article illustrates how Japanese national identity continues to be imagined along ethnic lin... more This article illustrates how Japanese national identity continues to be imagined along ethnic lines in the aftermath of the ‘triple disasters’ of March 11, 2011 (hereafter 3/11). It critically examines the ‘new’ discourse of tabunka kyōsei which seeks to incorporate migrants and other ethnic minorities in the nation through an emphasis on cultural difference and argues that the stress on the insurmountability of cultural difference reifies the identities of migrant and minority populations. This in turn allows the State to treat them as homogeneous groups with different interests which can be accommodated through the provision of public services at a local level, while effectively excluding them from the national level. In a post-3/11 context, the myth of an ethnically ‘homogeneous’ nation is reproduced through the discourse of Ganbarō Nippon with profound implications for the human security of migrant and minority populations.
‘Spectres of partition: Religious Nationalism in Post-Colonial South Asia’ in Jeff Kingston ed. A... more ‘Spectres of partition: Religious Nationalism in Post-Colonial South Asia’ in Jeff Kingston ed. Asian Nationalism Reconsidered (Abingdon: Routledge 2015), pp. 35-47.
This article seeks to draw attention to some of the core issues which beset the study of Sikh nat... more This article seeks to draw attention to some of the core issues which beset the study of Sikh nationalism as a coherent phenomenon in an increasingly globalized and socially fragmented world. First, it highlights the importance of revisiting the debate about the community’s religious boundaries, arguing that in contrast to the new conventional wisdom informed by poststructuralism, Sikh identity has exhibited a remarkable degree of continuity from the establishment of the Khalsa in comparison with other South Asian religio-political communities. The second key issue highlighted is the role of the Sikh diaspora in the development of Sikh nationalism and statehood. It critically examines the extent to which diaspora may be regarded as an instrument of ‘long-distance’ nationalism. Third, it argues that the existing literature on Sikh nationalism is remarkably community-centric and needs to engage with theories of nationalism. Finally, while acknowledging the cleavages which fragment the Sikh nation, it concludes that Sikh nationalism has been remarkably cohesive.
The Japanese have been bound together by a collective trauma since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an exp... more The Japanese have been bound together by a collective trauma since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an experience reawakened by the impact of the Fukushima disaster.
This paper seeks to critically interrogate the view that the emergence of ‘human security’ can be... more This paper seeks to critically interrogate the view that the emergence of ‘human security’ can be seen as a manifestation of what Norbert Elias aptly termed the ‘civilizing process’. Despite its recent adoption by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2012 and its institutionalization through the United Nations system, Human Security may be viewed –not only in its ‘narrow’ but also its ‘broad’ guises—as the latest instantiation of the ‘civilizing mission’ facilitating the continued intervention of the western-dominated ‘international community’ in previously colonized areas of the world. Critically reworked, however, human security has the potential to constitute a powerful ‘global ethic’ by distancing itself from its western ‘secular’ origins and recognizing the multiple religio-cultural contexts in which human dignity is embedded.
21 years after the publication of the 1994 Human Development Report which introduced the term to ... more 21 years after the publication of the 1994 Human Development Report which introduced the term to the academic and policy communities, Human Security has finally come of age. This conference seeks to critically evaluate some of the tensions which lie at the ‘vital core’ (Commission on Human Security 2003) of Human Security and to examine different ways in which the concept of Human Security can be used as an analytical tool for critical problem-solving or coping. To this end, it is proposed that the conference will have two main themes. The first will examine the empirical efficacy of Human Security as a ‘problem-solving theory’; a tool of International Development and Peacebuilding which can provide concrete solutions to practical problems with particular reference to health. The second theme, which will be addressed in the second plenary session, will examine the conceptual strengths and shortcomings of Human Security as ‘critical theory’; one designed not only to solve empirical problems but to transform existing social and political relations in order to make a world of ‘freedom and dignity’ (UN General Assembly 2012) possible. Of particular relevance to this theme is the relationship between the particular nature of cultural identities and the universal aspirations of Human Security. To what extent can they be reconciled and how can Human Security become more inclusive of religious, cultural and gender diversity?
The rise to political and economic prominence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India, ... more The rise to political and economic prominence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India, along with other members of the BRICS, has constituted a powerful challenge to the dominance of Western powers and ideas in world politics. However, both Asian superpowers - like Japan and the East Asian ‘Tiger’ economies before them - have as yet been unable to re-shape International Relations (IR) theory and practice. The rise of Asia more generally has led to a proliferation of national schools of IR (such as the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian) which have attempted to challenge the hegemony of Western ideas and theories in the discipline yet have left the traditional ontology of IR intact. The region is also characterised by a complex of people-centred non-traditional insecurities and vulnerabilities including human insecurities, people movements, environmental degradation, the politics of identity and democratisation which together challenge orthodox state and market centric approaches to the study and practice of International Relations.
This conference, hosted by the Asia-Pacific Region of the International Studies Association, will investigate the ways in which IR is being transformed IR in the Asia-Pacific. In particular, we invite the submission of papers and panels on the following topics: the nature of global transformations in the Asia-Pacific; the rise of the BRICS and China and India in particular; regionalism and sub-regionalism; the impact of globalization on regional identity and inequality; traditional and non-traditional security threats in the Asia-Pacific; Bandung and the Non-Aligned Movement in historical perspective; regional perspectives on peacebuilding and human security (including but not limited to the Responsibility to Protect); and regional histories, epistemologies and ontologies of IR with reference to attempts to go beyond Western IR theory.
21 years after the publication of the 1994 Human Development Report which introduced the term to ... more 21 years after the publication of the 1994 Human Development Report which introduced the term to the academic and policy communities, Human Security has finally come of age. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 and institutionalized within the UN system through the Trust Fund for Human Security, Human Security is a basic policy goal of the Japanese government. However, definitions of Human Security often appear vague and contradictory limiting its relevance to international relations and public policy. This conference seeks to critically evaluate some of the tensions which lie at the ‘vital core’ (Commission on Human Security 2003) of Human Security and to examine different ways in which the concept of Human Security can be used as an analytical tool. To this end, it is proposed that the conference will have two main themes. The first will examine the empirical efficacy of Human Security as a ‘problem-solving theory’; a tool of International Development and Peacebuilding which can provide concrete solutions to practical problems with particular reference to health. The second theme, which will be addressed in the second plenary session, will examine the conceptual strengths and shortcomings of Human Security as ‘critical theory’; one designed not only to solve empirical problems but to transform existing social and political relations in order to make a world of ‘freedom and dignity’ (UN General Assembly 2012) possible. Of particular relevance to this theme is the relationship between the particular nature of cultural identities and the universal aspirations of Human Security. To what extent can they be reconciled and how can Human Security become more inclusive of religious, cultural and gender diversity?
Please see attached for the provisional program for the ISA Asia-Pacific region conference to be ... more Please see attached for the provisional program for the ISA Asia-Pacific region conference to be held at City University of Hong Kong, June 25-27 2016. Kindly note that this is NOT the final draft which will be uploaded on the conference website: http://www.isanet.org/Conferences/Asia-Pacific-Hong-Kong-2016
Based on a forum in International Studies Perspectives International Studies Perspectives and a f... more Based on a forum in International Studies Perspectives International Studies Perspectives and a forthcoming special issue in and a forthcoming special issue in Review of Review of International Studies International Studies, this online panel addresses two challenges. First, what happens if we conceive of , this online panel addresses two challenges. First, what happens if we conceive of International Relations (IR) from a relational perspective by assuming relations as prior to the existence International Relations (IR) from a relational perspective by assuming relations as prior to the existence of entities. Second, it seeks to pluralize the sources of relational thinking in IR by showing how different of entities. Second, it seeks to pluralize the sources of relational thinking in IR by showing how different cosmological traditions view relationality, suggesting the possibility of a cosmological traditions view relationality, suggesting the possibility of a pluriversal pluriversal IR. Each participant IR. Each participant will be asked to speak to the challenges above when answering the following question: how are they will be asked to speak to the challenges above when answering the following question: how are they doing IR differently? doing IR differently?
Since 2013 over 50 million people have been displaced making dominant state-centric models of pro... more Since 2013 over 50 million people have been displaced making dominant state-centric models of protection and containment increasingly irrelevant. Within Europe and Asia, states have increasingly sought to “securitize” migration by subjecting asylum-seekers and would-be migrants to “biopolitical” controls designed to stop them from crossing borders. As the mass exodus of migrants to Europe from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) shows, these attempts to curb migration are increasingly futile as migrants take to land and sea in order to flee insecurity, often with tragic results. The global migration crisis, in short, forces us to rethink “security.”
The main aim of this paper is to rethink “security” along “post-secular” lines by taking into account the continued importance of culture, religion and identity to human security. Specifically, the paper will examine whether religion per se can be seen as a form of ontological security. For Giddens (1991:47), to be “ontologically secure is to possess, on the level of the unconscious and practical consciousness, ‘answers’ to fundamental existential questions which all human life in some way addresses”. Religion and nationalism provide “answers” to these questions in times of rapid socio-economic and cultural change (Kinvall 2004). The dislocation engendered by successive waves of neo-liberal globalization has resulted in the deracination of many of the world’s inhabitants resulting in a state of collective “existential anxiety” (Giddens 1991). Under such conditions of existential anxiety, the search for identity and community becomes paramount. However, secular conceptions of Human Security as ‘freedom from fear and want’ (Commission on Human Security 2003) fail to take into account the importance of identity for security. It will be suggested that a ‘post-secular’ understanding of Human Security (Shani 2014) is better able to provide ontological security in times of rapid global transformation.
Over the past twenty five years, conventional understandings of “security” have come under threat... more Over the past twenty five years, conventional understandings of “security” have come under threat. Although the “national security” paradigm continues to dominate the theory and practice of international relations, particularly in a South Asian context, it’s hegemony has been eroded by the emergence of non-traditional security threats (NTSTs) and by Human Security in particular. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 and institutionalized within the UN system through the Trust Fund for Human Security, Human Security is a basic policy goal of many countries. However, definitions of Human Security appear vague and contradictory. Consequently, its relevance to international relations and public policy is limited. This course seeks to critically evaluate some of the tensions which lie at the “vital core” of “security” and to apply different approaches of “security” to empirical case studies. Participants will be introduced to conventional understandings of “security” with reference to the “national security paradigm”. Subsequently, the emergence of NTSTs and Human Security will be discussed. Finally, participants will be introduced to the Critical Security Studies and critical perspectives on Human Security.
The overall objective of this series is to open up space for critical scholarship on Religion and... more The overall objective of this series is to open up space for critical scholarship on Religion and International Relations and to “post-secular” approaches to global politics. We understand “critical” in a broad sense to denote a perspective which seeks to bring into question both the main metaphysical underpinnings of the discipline of IR and of the category of religion itself. The main aims of the series are to decentre and pluralize discussions of religion in international politics by bringing into question the theological underpinnings of IR and by creating room for the articulation of alternative understandings of the relationship between the ‘religious’ and ‘political’ from other faith traditions.
This article seeks to reconceptualise emancipation in critically theorising International Relatio... more This article seeks to reconceptualise emancipation in critically theorising International Relations (IR) by developing 'thin' and 'thick' versions of normativity and applying them as conditions for a pluriversal dialogue between different cosmologies. We start with the premise that 'critical IR' is both Eurocentric and a-normative, and argue that a normative engagement with critical discourses both inside and outside the West is necessary to recapture its emancipatory promise. Drawing on the work of Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Jacques Derrida, we develop 'thin' and 'thick' versions of normativity. The former, we argue, operates as a critical corrective of thick normative positions, reclaiming their openness to difference, while not making substantive moral or political claims itself. We then apply these version of normativity to examine the possibility of a global pluriversal dialogue between different cosmologies. Cosmologies, we argue, refer to sets of ontological and epistemological claims about the human condition that are inherently normative. 'Thin' normativity applied to the 'thick' claims of cosmologies prevents the essentialisation and hierarchisation of cosmological difference(s) by revealing and de-constructing the latter's potentially discriminatory, exclusionary, and violent tendencies. In so doing, it facilitates a global inter-cosmological dialogue which we regard as the objective of a post-western, critical IR.
Difference, a central concern to the study of international relations (IR), has not had its ontol... more Difference, a central concern to the study of international relations (IR), has not had its ontological foundations adequately disrupted. This forum explores how existential assumptions rooted in relational logics provide a significantly distinct set of tools that drive us to re-orient how we perceive, interpret, and engage both similarity and difference. Taking their cues from cosmological commitments originating in the Andes, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, the six contributions explore how our existential assumptions affect the ways in which we deal with difference as theorists, researchers, and teachers. This initial conversation pinpoints key content and foci of future relational work in IR.
Abstract
Difference, a central concern to the study of international relations (IR), has not had ... more Abstract Difference, a central concern to the study of international relations (IR), has not had its ontological foundations adequately disrupted. This forum explores how existential assumptions rooted in relational logics provide a significantly distinct set of tools that drive us to re-orient how we perceive, interpret, and engage both similarity and difference. Taking their cues from cosmological commitments originating in the Andes, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, the six contributions explore how our existential assumptions affect the ways in which we deal with difference as theorists, researchers, and teachers. This initial conversation pinpoints key content and foci of future relational work in IR.
Resumen: Las bases ontológicas de la diferencia, uno de los principales temas que se abordan en el estudio de las relaciones internacionales, no han sido cuestionadas lo suficiente. En este foro, exploramos cómo las presuposiciones existenciales arraigadas a la lógica relacional proveen un conjunto de herramientas completamente distinto que nos permite percibir, interpretar y relacionar la similitud y la diferencia de otra forma. Tomando como referencia las cosmovivencias encontradas en los Andes, Asia del Sur, Asia Oriental y Oriente Medio, en las seis colaboraciones se analiza cómo las hipótesis existenciales influyen en la forma en la que estudiamos la diferencia como teóricos, investigadores y docentes. En esta primera
conversación, se señala el contenido fundamental y el centro de atención del futuro trabajo relacional en el ámbito de las RR. II.
Extrait: Les bases ontologiques de la différence, l'une des principales préoccupations de l’étude des relations internationales, n'avaient jusqu'ici pas été décomposées de manière adéquate. Cette tribune presse explore la façon dont les suppositions existentielles ancrées dans les logiques relationnelles offrent un ensemble d'outils considérablement distincts et nous incitent à réorienter la manière dont nous percevons, interprétons et approchons à la fois la similarité et la différence. Les six essais examinent la façon dont nos paris existentiels affectent les manières dont nous traitons la différence en tant que théoriciens, chercheurs et enseignants en s'appuyant sur des points de repère issus d'engagements cosmologiques intervenant dans les Andes, en Asie du Sud, en Asie de l'Est et dans le Moyen-Orient. Ce premier échange a permis d'identifier les principaux contenus et axes du futur travail relationnel dans les relations internationales.
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Books by Giorgio Shani
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
This edited volume critically interrogates the field of peace studies, considering its assumptions, teleologies, canons, influence, enmeshments with power structures, biases, and normative ends. We highlight four interrelated tendencies in peace studies: hypostasis (strong essentializing tendencies), teleology (its imagined “end”), normativity (the set of often utopian and Eurocentric discourses that guide it), and enterprise (the attempt to undertake large projects, often ones of social engineering to attain this end). The chapters in this volume reveal these tendencies while offering new paths to escape them.
Visit http://www.rethinkingpeacestudies.com/ for further details on the Rethinking Peace Studies project
Articles and Chapters by Giorgio Shani
to construct an emancipatory post-western world order which is based on serious and emphatic engagement with “other” traditions and in which territorial expansionism has no place.
https://www.e-ir.info/2022/03/13/opinion-a-new-world-order-from-a-liberal-to-a-post-western-order/
https://www.e-ir.info/2022/01/05/rethinking-critical-ir-towards-a-plurilogue-of-cosmologies/
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
Addressing empirical, analytical, and normative questions, it analyses selected case studies from across Asia, including China, India, Iraq, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and compares the differences and commonalities between the diverse configurations of nationalism and religion across the continent. It then goes on to explain reasons for the regional religious resurgence and asks, is the nation-state model, aligned with secularism, suitable for the region? Exploring the two interrelated issues of legacies and possibilities, this book also examines the relationship between nationalism and modernity, identifying possible and desirable trajectories which go beyond existing configurations of nationalism and religion.
Bringing together a stellar line up of contributors in the field, Religion and Nationalism in Asia will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian religion and politics as well as sociology, ethnicity, nationalism and comparative politics.
This edited volume critically interrogates the field of peace studies, considering its assumptions, teleologies, canons, influence, enmeshments with power structures, biases, and normative ends. We highlight four interrelated tendencies in peace studies: hypostasis (strong essentializing tendencies), teleology (its imagined “end”), normativity (the set of often utopian and Eurocentric discourses that guide it), and enterprise (the attempt to undertake large projects, often ones of social engineering to attain this end). The chapters in this volume reveal these tendencies while offering new paths to escape them.
Visit http://www.rethinkingpeacestudies.com/ for further details on the Rethinking Peace Studies project
to construct an emancipatory post-western world order which is based on serious and emphatic engagement with “other” traditions and in which territorial expansionism has no place.
https://www.e-ir.info/2022/03/13/opinion-a-new-world-order-from-a-liberal-to-a-post-western-order/
https://www.e-ir.info/2022/01/05/rethinking-critical-ir-towards-a-plurilogue-of-cosmologies/
international relations theory, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 20:3, 417-433, DOI: 10.1080/09557570701574105
Abstract
This article will attempt to ‘provincialize’ or ‘decentre’ critical theory by
looking at the development of critical discourses from within the Islamic and Sikh religious traditions. Although important theological, philosophical and historical differences exist between the two communities, Islamic and Sikh narratives share a rejection of the
subordination of the religious to the political and thus potentially challenge the Westphalian order. However, in the case of the Sikh Qaum, no clear distinction between ‘nation’ and ‘religion’ is possible given the strong attachment to a territorially defined ancestral homeland. This article suggests that both critical Islamic and Sikh discourses,
particularly those emanating from the diaspora, are potentially compatible with the ‘discourse ethics’ of critical theory. This is, however, conditional on the recognition of the universality of their beliefs, a position incompatible with the ‘thin’ cosmopolitanism of
critical theory.
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/WFTjePgXxGkZMzcQpWNZ/full
examines the ‘new’ discourse of tabunka kyōsei which seeks to incorporate migrants and other ethnic minorities in the nation through an emphasis on cultural difference and argues
that the stress on the insurmountability of cultural difference reifies the identities of migrant and minority populations. This in turn allows the State to treat them as homogeneous groups
with different interests which can be accommodated through the provision of public services at a local level, while effectively excluding them from the national level. In a post-3/11
context, the myth of an ethnically ‘homogeneous’ nation is reproduced through the discourse of Ganbarō Nippon with profound implications for the human security of migrant and
minority populations.
establishment of the Khalsa in comparison with other South Asian religio-political communities. The second key issue highlighted is the role of the Sikh diaspora in the development of Sikh nationalism and statehood. It critically examines the extent to which diaspora may be regarded as an instrument of ‘long-distance’ nationalism. Third, it argues that the existing
literature on Sikh nationalism is remarkably community-centric and needs to engage with theories of nationalism. Finally, while acknowledging the cleavages which fragment the Sikh nation, it concludes that Sikh nationalism has been remarkably cohesive.
This conference, hosted by the Asia-Pacific Region of the International Studies Association, will investigate the ways in which IR is being transformed IR in the Asia-Pacific. In particular, we invite the submission of papers and panels on the following topics: the nature of global transformations in the Asia-Pacific; the rise of the BRICS and China and India in particular; regionalism and sub-regionalism; the impact of globalization on regional identity and inequality; traditional and non-traditional security threats in the Asia-Pacific; Bandung and the Non-Aligned Movement in historical perspective; regional perspectives on peacebuilding and human security (including but not limited to the Responsibility to Protect); and regional histories, epistemologies and ontologies of IR with reference to attempts to go beyond Western IR theory.
The main aim of this paper is to rethink “security” along “post-secular” lines by taking into account the continued importance of culture, religion and identity to human security. Specifically, the paper will examine whether religion per se can be seen as a form of ontological security. For Giddens (1991:47), to be “ontologically secure is to possess, on the level of the unconscious and practical consciousness, ‘answers’ to fundamental existential questions which all human life in some way addresses”. Religion and nationalism provide “answers” to these questions in times of rapid socio-economic and cultural change (Kinvall 2004). The dislocation engendered by successive waves of neo-liberal globalization has resulted in the deracination of many of the world’s inhabitants resulting in a state of collective “existential anxiety” (Giddens 1991). Under such conditions of existential anxiety, the search for identity and community becomes paramount. However, secular conceptions of Human Security as ‘freedom from fear and want’ (Commission on Human Security 2003) fail to take into account the importance of identity for security. It will be suggested that a ‘post-secular’ understanding of Human Security (Shani 2014) is better able to provide ontological security in times of rapid global transformation.
practice of international relations, particularly in a South Asian context, it’s hegemony has been eroded by the emergence of non-traditional security threats (NTSTs) and by Human Security in particular. Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 and institutionalized within the UN system through the Trust Fund for Human Security, Human
Security is a basic policy goal of many countries. However, definitions of Human Security appear vague and contradictory. Consequently, its relevance to international relations and public policy is limited. This course seeks to critically evaluate some of the tensions which lie
at the “vital core” of “security” and to apply different approaches of “security” to empirical case studies. Participants will be introduced to conventional understandings of “security” with reference to the “national security paradigm”. Subsequently, the emergence of NTSTs and
Human Security will be discussed. Finally, participants will be introduced to the Critical Security Studies and critical perspectives on Human Security.
Difference, a central concern to the study of international relations (IR), has not had its ontological foundations adequately disrupted. This forum explores how existential assumptions rooted in relational logics provide a significantly distinct set of tools that drive us to re-orient how we perceive, interpret, and engage both similarity and difference. Taking their cues from cosmological commitments originating in the Andes, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, the six contributions explore how our existential assumptions affect the ways in which we deal with difference as theorists, researchers, and teachers. This initial conversation pinpoints key content and foci of future relational work in IR.
Resumen: Las bases ontológicas de la diferencia, uno de los principales temas que se abordan en el estudio de las relaciones internacionales, no han sido cuestionadas lo suficiente. En este foro, exploramos cómo las presuposiciones existenciales arraigadas a la lógica relacional proveen un conjunto de herramientas completamente distinto que nos permite percibir, interpretar y relacionar la similitud y la diferencia de otra forma. Tomando como referencia las cosmovivencias encontradas en los Andes, Asia del Sur, Asia Oriental y Oriente Medio, en las seis colaboraciones se analiza cómo las hipótesis existenciales influyen en la forma en la que estudiamos la diferencia como teóricos, investigadores y docentes. En esta primera
conversación, se señala el contenido fundamental y el centro de atención del futuro trabajo relacional en el ámbito de las RR. II.
Extrait: Les bases ontologiques de la différence, l'une des principales préoccupations de l’étude des relations internationales, n'avaient jusqu'ici pas été décomposées de manière adéquate. Cette tribune presse explore la façon dont les suppositions existentielles ancrées dans les logiques relationnelles offrent un ensemble d'outils considérablement distincts et nous incitent à réorienter la manière dont nous percevons, interprétons et approchons à la fois la similarité et la différence. Les six essais examinent la façon dont nos paris existentiels affectent les manières dont nous traitons la différence en tant que théoriciens, chercheurs et enseignants en s'appuyant sur des points de repère issus d'engagements cosmologiques intervenant dans les Andes, en Asie du Sud, en Asie de l'Est et dans le Moyen-Orient. Ce premier échange a permis d'identifier les principaux contenus et axes du futur travail relationnel dans les relations internationales.