Hegemony and Discourse: New Perspectives on International Relations

Hegemony and Discourse examines contemporary theories and practices of international relations from a non-Western perspective and suggests some tentative and intriguing conclusions about the complex relationship between discourse and hegemony. The first part of the book examines the burning global issues in, what the author calls, the post post-Cold War period. These are issues arising from recent developments that have consequences on an international scale, including September 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.; the subsequent war in Afghanistan; and the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. The second part of the book scrutinizes the political ideas of a 14th century Afro-Muslim thinker, Ibn-Khaldun. These works are analyzed in the context of the discourse on modernity in order to demonstrate a longstanding tradition of hegemonic discourse in Western historiography and the contemporary relevancy of Ibn-Khaldun's ideas.