Debating international relations and its relevance to the third world

Abstract

In 1935, Sir Alfred Zimmern described IR not as a single field or discipline, but a “bundle of sub-jects…viewed
from a common angle” drawn toward questions of international and global continuity and change. However,
since its emergence as a “formal separate discipline” of study IR manifests a very little emphasis from the point
of view of the Global South realities. Generally, the study of IR has largely neglected the epistemological
position of the Global South, its intellectuals and their roles in the continuity and change in the discipline. This
paper draws a postcolonial approach to critique, the Eurocentric nature and character of IR discipline and its
exclusive emphasis on what happens or happened in the West. The claim is made on how IR as a discipline
privileges the Eurocentric world views as an integral to the ordering and functioning of the discipline.