Global and Post-western IR, Area Studies, and the Rise of China: Promises and Limits

East Asia is increasingly at the centre of debates among IR scholars. China’s political, economic, and military ascendency is increasingly considered as a crucial test case for main approaches to IR. Despite this renewed attention, mainstream theories employed to analyse contemporary Asia are still remarkably Euro-centric. A wave of studies has argued in favour of a broad “decolonization” of theoretical concepts used to analyse East Asia as well as other regions. These efforts have produced several distinct research agendas. Firstly, critical and post-colonial theorists have worked on the par destruens, highlighting the inherent Eurocentrism of many IR concepts and theories. Secondly, scholars as Buzan and Acharya have promoted the idea of Global IR, seeking to advance a “non-Western” and non Euro-centric research agenda. This agenda has found fertile ground especially in China, where several scholars have tried to promote a Chinese school of IR. This chapter has three main purposes. Firstly, it briefly explores the issue of Eurocentrism in IR studies dedicated to East Asia. Secondly, it maps the theoretical debates aimed at overcoming it, looking in particular at the “Global IR” research programme and the so-called Chinese School. Finally, it sketches a few other possible avenues of research for a very much needed cooperation between Global IR and area studies.