ABSTRACT
The beginning of the 21st century witnessed a global turn in international relations (IR). Two projects by Acharya and Buzan and Tickner and her colleagues, respectively, for promoting a global IR endeavor have played a crucial role in promoting this global turn. In fact, the success of a truly global IR depends very much on whether there will be a healthy development of IR theories in the non-Western world. This edited volume aims to promote the development of IR theories in non-Western areas through a conducive and critical dialogue between mainstream IR scholars from the core who embrace plurality and/or support the global IR project and scholars from the periphery who have made effort to develop IR theories and are ready to engage the mainstream in the West. This introductory chapter discusses the contributions of the two pioneering projects, provides a practical definition of non-Western IR theory and summarizes the views and opinions of the contributors on the question, ‘How do we develop non-Western IR theories?’
