Article in International Studies · April 018 doi: 10. 1177/0020881718790687 citations reads 4,427 author: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

khilafah and the Westphalian system of states in the areas of political and organizational 

constructs, human temporal and spiritual missions and basic philosophies of authority and 

sovereignty have visible and explicable reflections in their respective sets of theories of 

international relations.  

 

This article analyzes the differences between the two contradictory sets of Western and Islamic 

IR theories bringing into focus their ontological categories and epistemological approaches to 

world affairs. It builds on the historical contexts and cultural perspectives from which the two 

sets of theories sprang out and were critically shaped in the course of their respective evolution 

and development. It concludes that the Western and Islamic IR theories greatly rival each other 

ontologically and epistemologically and their interpretations of world affairs cannot but differ 

substantially.  In the process, the article has sought to make two important contributions to the 

world of IR: firstly, Islamic discourses on IR have contributed to the development of a set of 

theories to analyze and interpret global issues and developments concerning the Islamic and non-

Islamic world; and secondly, it implicitly presents arguments in favor of opening up IR for rather 

                                                           

     

 

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more global perspectives. Islamic IR theories are rich with internal variations, such as Sunni, 

Shia and Sufi IR theories but this article, due to space constraints, exclusively focuses on the 

Sunni brand of Islamic IR theories and compares them to Western IR theories.