Western-Centric Moments in Homegrown IR Theories: Dependency, Chinese and African Schools

Abstract

The modern international system has been shaped by long-standing historical
 practices of unequal power relations, which have positioned the Western world
 at the center of the political universe. Due to the centrality of the Global North
 in the international system, any IR theory that aims to portray a true picture
 of the “globe” necessarily situates the West at the center of scientific inquiry.
 Furthermore, the form of universality generated by Western hegemony has
 been diffused throughout the world over centuries, spreading Western political
 institutions, economic structures, and ideological norms in an uneven setting.
 As a result, the social structures of the Global South have developed through an
 uneven form of relationship and dialectical interaction with the West. Therefore,
 homegrown IR theories, which uncover local political, philosophical, or cultural
 motives as sources for theory-making, in fact, concentrate on stratified forms of
 the universal reality that is diffused through the uneven spread of Western social
 structures. In this sense, there is a Western-centric moment in any homegrown
 IR theory. Accordingly, this article develops a scientific realist account of the
 structure/agent relationship in order to analyze the material grounds of Westerncentrism
 in the field of international politics and to evaluate the role of non-
 Western actors. Additionally, it critically evaluates distinctive homegrown
 theories produced on three different continents to reveal the aforementioned
 Western-centric moments in these theoretical initiatives. Namely, the Dependency
 School of Latin America, the Chinese School of International Relations, and the
 African School are respectively scrutinized to disclose the embedded Westerncentrism
 in these theoretical initiatives