“Western Centrism” as “Particularism” in Neo-realist Theory

Authors : Gökçen YAVAŞ

Pages : 64-74

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Publication Date : 2015-04-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The field of International Relations which utterly became an academic discipline at the beginning of the 20 th century has always been subjected to a matter of debate whether it has scientific and universal theoretical principles in explaining international politics. Neorealism that was first introduced in 1979 by Kenneth N. Waltz has been one of the most leading theories offering law making, positivist and universal accounts for the field of IR among all other theories. However, Neorealism is essentially challenged by one of the particularistic traits of social theory, in this study, that is Western-centrism. This article aims at scrutinizing the Western-centric grounds of Neorealism, through an analysis of ontological and epistemological levels of its making. The Western-centric background will be analyzed at three levels of arguments in Neorealist theory: anarchy and hierarchy; rationalism and empiricism; and normativism.
Keywords : Neorealism, Western centrism, Particularism, Universalism