Nadia Mustafa. Approaching the Discipline of International Relations: Competing Paradigms and Contrasting Epistemes (original) (raw)

Since its inception as an academic discipline, the title "International Relations" (IR) has remained a misnomer and a source of controversy, confusion, and criticism. Following the challenge posed by critical theories in the fourth disciplinary debate, the discipline has become a battleground for competing paradigms and contradictory epistemes. While this critical turn exposed the limitations of dominant Western perspectives, it also prompted the Global South, particularly the Islamic world, to reflect on its intellectual and theoretical impoverishment in the field of social sciences, especially IR. Nadia Mustafa's Approaching the Discipline of International Relations: Competing Paradigms and Contrasting Epistemes is a recent (non-Western) contribution to this ongoing debate and a novel attempt to present an Islamic response. As a culmination of the author's extensive work, this book is tailored for intermediate to advanced readers, such as graduate students and researchers. 1 Readers are expected to have prior knowledge in several key areas, including the philosophy of social sciences, developments in IR theory, traditional Islamic thought, and Islamic history, as well as familiarity with the author's previous works and the Egyptian School at Cairo University-much of which, originally published in Arabic, is extensively referenced throughout the book. Tracing its roots to the 1980s project of establishing foundations for Islamic social sciences, Mustafa's work is the culmination of nearly half a century of efforts by the Egyptian School of the Islamic Civilizational Paradigm (ICP) at Cairo University. It is a conscious attempt to acknowledge and address the intellectual crises facing the Muslim world and provide alternatives to dominant Western hegemonic paradigms.