ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the recent efforts to globalize international relations (IR) theory by addressing issues of Eurocentrism. It highlights how existing work on globality remains prone to cultural essentialism due to the persistent problem of ‘epistemic mapping’. This representational practice premised on the idea that particular identities, symbols or thought systems have a single, internally constituted geographic provenance. The chapter then outlines the analytical commitments of Global Historical Sociology, elaborating a globally oriented approach to identity formation. On this basis, it shows how ethno-culturalism emerged with the nineteenth-century rise of a Western-colonial global hierarchy. Turning to the development of anti-colonial movements, the chapter then examines the development of Black internationalism during the early twentieth century. Finally, it outlines the wider contributions of Global Historical Sociology to the project of globalizing IR theory.
