Description
Book SynopsisInternational relations scholars typically expect political communities to resemble one another the more they are exposed to pressures of war, economic competition and the spread of hegemonic legitimacy standards. However, historically it is heterogeneity, not homogeneity, that has most often defined international systems. Examining the Indian Ocean region - the centre of early modern globalization - Andrew Phillips and J. C. Sharman explain how diverse international systems can emerge and endure. Divergent preferences for terrestrial versus maritime conquest, congruent traditions of heteronomy and shared strategies of localization were factors which enabled diverse actors including the Portuguese Estado da India, Dutch and English company sovereigns and mighty Asian empires to co-exist for centuries without converging on a common institutional form. Debunking the presumed relationship between interaction and homogenization, this book radically revises conventional thinking on the evol
Trade Review'This superb historical sociological exploration of the Indian Ocean system in effect provides a compelling and vitally important double-provincialisation of Westphalia: first, by revealing how heteronomous rather than (Westphalian) homogenous international orders have constituted the norm in world political history; and second, by revealing the critical point that the standard Westphalian logic of homogenization reflects a Eurocentric conception that simply does not stand up when applied to the non-Western world.' John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield
'Exceptionally clear and accessible, this is an excellent contribution to theories of international continuity and change and theories of system dynamics. It also has interesting implications for our understanding of state transformation.' Dan Nexon, Georgetown University, Washington DC, and Lead Editor, International Studies Quarterly
'This book makes a major theoretical and empirical contribution. Theoretically, it greatly advances our understanding of how diverse political organizations may interact in regional international systems. Empirically, it elucidates how the Indian Ocean presented an inter-ecumenical zone that synergistically braided European, Middle East and Asian influences in early modernity.' Hendrik Spruyt, Norman Dwight Harris Professor of International Relations, Northwestern University, Illinois
'This is a remarkable book. In only about 250 pages it seeks to provide a new way of looking at how international relations should be taught. It is also, in international relations terms, seeking to bring the Indian Ocean in from the cold.' Keith Suter, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The puzzle of durable diversity in international relations; 2. The initial growth of diversity, 1500–1600; 3. The expansion of diversity and competition under heteronomy, 1600–50; 4. The stabilization of diversity, 1600–1750; 5. Reconfiguring diversity in the age of empire, 1750–1900; Conclusion: order in diversity.
