Global IR, global modernity and civilization in Turkish Islamist thought: a critique of culturalism in international relations

Abstract

This article responds to Acharya’s call to integrate deep area studies knowledge and methods into a global IR by presenting the findings of an empirical enquiry into the concept of civilization in Turkish Islamist thought. It delves into primary and secondary sources, in English and Turkish and in particular into the works of a number of emblematic Islamist thinkers in Republican (post-1923) Turkey, to show that their approach to ‘Islamic civilization’ is defined through nineteenth century, modern concepts, shared with so-called Western thinkers and contexts. The conclusions of the study constitute the basis for a critique of the culturalist perspective in IR which treats cultural and civilizational differences as foundational or even immutable. The article posits, instead, that a truly global IR can only be developed if it is underpinned by the concepts of global modernity and global history (as proposed by Buzan and Lawson, among other IR theorists and historians), across an imagined ‘East’ and ‘West’.