World Politics and Western Reason: Universalism, Pluralism, Hegemony

Much recent thinking about international politics and world order reflects a number of challenges, at the levels of both theory and praxis, to the global hegemony of Western modernity. It converges upon a major critique of the universalist aspirations for one united world that have emerged from the utopian or idealist traditions of international political theory. Three elements of this critique are of particular importance: the reassertion of the value of nationalism and the autonomy of the state in the face of a tradition of thought which has usually viewed the state as the major problem to be overcome; an emphasis on the importance of ‘culture’ as a central focus of analysis; and the attempt to canvass non-Western cultural traditions as a necessary part of the search for a ‘just’ world order. This study is concerned to delineate the way in which each of these issues appears if examined in the context of recent critiques of the conventional categories of modern sociopolitical theory. It argues that there is a possibility that the critique of Western hegemonic discourse will become co-opted into the categorial scheme of that discourse. It also suggests that the external challenge to Western hegemonic discourse impinges directly upon a knot of difficulties within this discourse itself. It concludes that it is the convergence of these external and internal critiques which is important, for they both underline the extent to which many attempts to transcend the sterility of the conventional categories of world order thinking are subverted by a dichotomous logic of we/they, subject/object, universal/plural. Recognition of the limits of the current language of world order discourse clarifies the possibilities for transformation.