Description
International Relations (IR) defines itself as a discipline by adhering to a Westphalian narrative centred on 1648. The following paper argues that IR should broaden its engagement with world history to consider the international prior to 1648 and to examine global and transnational historical accounts which challenge the states in anarchy framework. This paper examines how pre-modern history is often used within IR as a foil for which western superiority is defined. It concludes by arguing for the need to re-read the processes of modernity and imperialism that are commonly seen as the prelude to the familiar Eurocentric stories told in IR.
