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

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Dr. Mohammed Nuruzzaman 

Associate Professor of International Relations 

Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait 

E-mail: 

[e-mail]

  

 

Article published in International Studies, vol. 55, no. 2, 2018 

DOI: 

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0020881718790687

  

 

[This is the first draft version of the article] 

 

Western and Islamic International Theories: A Comparative Analysis 

 

Abstract: Islamic theories of international relations have been traditionally dominated by 

debates  between  two  distinct  approaches  –  traditionalism  and  modernism.  A  third 

perspective,  often  labelled  the  ‘jihadist  perspective’,  has  emerged  following  the  11 

September 2001 attacks and this radical perspective principally embodies the worldview 

of  al-Qaeda  and  its  off-shoot  the  Islamic  State.  The  jihadist  perspective  directly 

challenges  the  Western  concepts,  methods  and  theories  of  international  relations.  This 

article  examines  how  the  Islamic  and  Western  international  theories  clash  in  terms  of 

ontological foundations, epistemological approaches and modes of inquiry. It argues that 

Islamic discourse on IR has contributed to the development of a set of theories to analyze 

and interpret relations between the Islamic and the non-Islamic world; and secondly, it 

implicitly  presents  arguments  in  favor  of  opening  up  IR  for  rather  more  global 

perspectives.