Sufism: A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations

Review Sufism: A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations is a valuable and timely contribution to the increasing interest in non-Western traditions of thought. It will be of interest to IR theorists as well as scholars in other disciplines who are interested in non-Western traditions of thought and is sure to motivate further research in IR that is inspired by Sufism. ― Insight TurkeyA theoretically ambitious and often captivating opening shot exploring Islamic mysticism and politics in the international realm, featuring a wide variety of academic scholars, spatial settings, disciplinary approaches and topical interpretations. -- Matthijs van den Bos, Department of Politics, Birkbeck College, University of London Product Description In an effort to attain a ‘global’ character, the contemporary academic discipline of International Relations (IR) increasingly seeks to surpass its Eurocentric limits, thereby opening up pathways to incorporate non-Eurocentric worldviews. Lately, many of the non-Eurocentric worldviews have emerged which either engender a ‘derivative’ discourse of the same Eurocentric IR theories, or construct an ‘exceptionalist’ discourse which is particularly applicable to the narrow experiential realities of a native time-space zone: as such, they fall short of the ambition to produce a genuinely ‘non-derivative’ and ‘non-exceptionalist’ Global IR theory. Against this backdrop, Sufism: A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations performs a multidisciplinary research to explore how ‘Sufism’ – as an established non-Western philosophy with a remarkable temporal-spatial spread across the globe – facilitates a creative intervention in the theoretical understanding of Global IR. About the Author Deepshikha Shahi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, India. She conducted her Post-doctoral study at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (Käte Hamburger-Kolleg), University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She has recently published two books: • Advaita as a Global International Relations Theory (2018) London and New York: Routledge (https://www.routledge.com/Advaita-as-a-Global-International-Relations-Theory/Shahi/p/book/9781138497740) • Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory (2018) Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan (https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030017279) She has also recently published an article in the European Journal of International Relations (2018) – Introducing Sufism to International Relations Theory: A preliminary inquiry into epistemological, ontological, and methodological pathways (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1354066117751592)