ABSTRACT
As the rigid dualism in ‘Western/Eurocentric IR’ and ‘non-Western/Post-colonial/De-colonial IR’ separates the ‘theorizing subject’ and the ‘theorized object’, thereby eliminating the possibility of a universalist imagination of Global IR, it is the monism of Advaita that creates room for alternatively realizing this possibility by forecasting a potential subject–object merger. Although Advaita accepts the dualist experience of subject–object separation in phenomenal world (identical to Eurocentric IR and non-Eurocentric Post-colonial and De-colonial IR), it presumes that this dualist experience is coincidental to a monist (non)experience of subject–object merger in noumenal world. Since the phenomenal world and noumenal world are not conceived as two distinct ‘temporal–spatial existential zones’, but two distinct ‘cognitive zones’ of the same all-pervasive single hidden connectedness, Advaita presumes that the phenomenally separated subject and object are coincidentally merged in each other via noumenal oneness. According to this Advaitic envisioning of subject–object merger, the ‘subject’ (West, Rest etc.) is presumed as always-already merged in the ‘object’ (non-West, non-Rest etc.) and vice versa. It is in this sense that the Advaitic monism acquires a noteworthy theoretical importance for comprehending Global IR. The chapter not only ventures out to formulate the Advaitic Global IR theory, but also explores the extent to which a reconciliation of ‘Eurocentric dualism’ with a few up-and-coming models of ‘non-Eurocentric monism’ could leverage a ‘Global’ theoretical–practical spirit in IR.
