Description:
This groundbreaking book develops a new periodization for understanding contemporary international history. It challenges West-centric approaches by setting up timelines appropriate for a global approach to International Relations.
Shifting the focus beyond great power wars, it incorporates economic, societal and environmental changes to redefine what constitutes significant historical moments for both the Global North and South. It uncovers pivotal turning points in the 1840s, 1970s and now, that highlight the formation, dominance, unravelling and replacement of the Western world order. It offers new foundations for understanding both how we arrived at where we stand today and what might lie ahead.
Brief description: Barry Buzan is Professor Emeritus at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS. Previously, he was Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the LSE. He has written, co-authored or edited over 30 books, and written or co-authored more than 170 articles and chapters mainly on IR theory, the discipline of IR, International Security, Northeast Asia and global history. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the British Academy.
Review Quotes: "1648/1919/1945/1979/1991 versus 1840s/1970s/2020s-2030s as key temporal benchmarks of International Relations and International Political Economy? Buzan's seminal, agenda-setting book makes the non-Eurocentric case for the latter." John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield