Global, Local and Indigenous: Reading Ali Shariati

Abstract

Even after hundred years of the formation of the discipline of international relations, the relevance of non-western approaches has remained in the knowledge peripheries. This paper attempts to discuss the ideas, concepts and methods of Ali Shariati in the larger framework of international relations from an Eastern perspective. In doing so, it attempts to problematise the existing linear reading of international relations with its existing knowledge framework. The paper further discusses various challenges and dilemmas faced by scholars from the East while attempting to make sense of the world from the realities of East, in a discipline like international relations (IR), that is traditionally been hegemonised by State- Military paradox. It attempts to think upon the idea of plurality in IR by reflecting on ideas of Ali Shariati. The article thus seeks the attention of young researchers from the East into the role of method in discerning reality and truth and maintains that each civilisation of the world has rich intellectual resources. One needs a proper method to put their indigenous method, ideas, concepts into perspective to make sense of the world differently.