REIMAGINING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: GLOBAL SOUTH AND BHARATIYA THOUGHT AS NEW ANCHORS

Today, the Global South faces the task of transforming this legacy into a coherent philosophy of international relations. Contemporary scholarship argues that IR remains skewed by Western dominance; its theories, institutions, and even research priorities continue to marginalise alternative epistemologies.

- RAVI RAMESHCHANDRA & PRADYUMAN S KHILERI

Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and the rise of industrial colonialism, the study of international relations (IR) in the Western world has been rooted in a state-centric paradigm that privileges diplomacy, power, and sovereignty.

Before this modern system emerged, interstate relations revolved around trade, cultural exchanges, and warfare but they lacked the formal institutional structures that later defined IR. The expansionist pursuits of Christianity and Islam, and later European colonialism, often led to invasions, occupations, and proselytisation. These could hardly qualify as true “relations among equals” in Morgenthau’s sense of “politics among nations”. In his seminal work Politics Among Nations, Hans J. Morgenthau defined international politics as a struggle for power among self-interested states, guided by the notion of “interest defined as power”. This classical realism dominated the twentieth century and reflected a world of competitive, sovereign states seeking stability through balance of power.

However, the twenty-first century presents a world far more complex than what realist or even liberal frameworks can explain. Border security, human rights violations, terrorism, narcotics, poverty, health crises, and illiteracy persist despite decades of institutional effort.

The United Nations and its agencies have made sincere attempts to resolve these issues, yet their credibility often suffers due to inefficiency, politicisation, and lack of democratic representation. The decision-making mechanisms of major international bodies, dominated by a handful of powerful states, have failed to keep pace with the rapidly changing global realities. The problem, therefore, is not merely one of policy failure but of a philosophical vacuum at the heart of international relations.