The ancient Indian text of Kautilya's Arthastra comes forth as a valuable non-Western resource for understanding contemporary International Relations (IR). However, Kautilya's Arthastra largely suffers from the problem of 'presentism', whereby present-day assumptions of the dominant theoretical models of Classical Realism and Neorealism are read back into it, thereby disrupting open reflections on Kautilya's Arthastra which could retrieve its 'alternative assumptions' and 'unconventional traits'. This book attempts to enable Kautilya's Arthastra to break free from the problem of presentism it does so by juxtaposing the elements of continuity and change that showed up at different junctures of the life-history of both 'Kautilya's Arthastra' and 'Eurocentric IR'. The overall exploratory venture leads to a Kautilyan non-Western eclectic theory of IR a theory which moderately assimilates miscellaneous research traditions of Eurocentric IR, and, in addition, delivers a few innovative features that could potentially uplift not only Indian IR, but also Global IR.

Analyses Kautilya's Arthastra as a significant work of non-Western IR theory
Rejects the dominant Classical Realist/Neorealist readings of Kautilya's Arthastra *

• Exposes the extra-Political Realist elements of Kautilya's Arthastra, placing it as a work of 'Political Realism between realpolitik and moralpolitik'

  Autorentext

  Deepshikha Shahi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, India. She previously studied at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research/Käte Hamburger-Kolleg, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She is the author of Advaita as a Global International Relations Theory.

  Klappentext

  The ancient Indian text of Kautilya's Arthasastra comes forth as a valuable non-Western resource for understanding contemporary International Relations (IR). However, Kautilya's Arthasastra largely suffers from the problem of 'presentism', whereby present-day assumptions of the dominant theoretical models of Classical Realism and Neorealism are read back into it, thereby disrupting open reflections on Kautilya's Arthasastra which could retrieve its 'alternative assumptions' and 'unconventional traits'. This book attempts to enable Kautilya's Arthasastra to break free from the problem of presentism - it does so by juxtaposing the elements of continuity and change that showed up at different junctures of the life-history of both 'Kautilya's Arthasastra' and 'Eurocentric IR'. The overall exploratory venture leads to a Kautilyan non-Western eclectic theory of IR - a theory which moderately assimilates miscellaneous research traditions of Eurocentric IR, and, in addition, delivers a few innovative features that could potentially uplift not only Indian IR, but also Global IR.

  Inhalt

  1. Prelude
  2. Kautilya's Arthastra: A Philosophical Reconstruction
  3. Kautilya Meets Buddha: Arthastra between the Realpolitik and Moralpolitik of Aoka's Mauryan Empire
  4. Kautilya Reincarnated: Steering Arthastra toward an Eclectic Theory of International Relations
  5. Postlude
     Bibliography
     Index