Toward a Paradigm Shift in International Relations Studies

This book asks why the current IR paradigm has outlasted its utility and argues that despite changes to world politics, the paradigm of IR remains far more preoccupied with the dynamics of war and almost silent, when it comes to commenting on the conditions of lasting, global peace. Cognizant of the dominant paradigm’s supposed preoccupation with seeking peace, the author shows how IR’s mainstream discourses work to reproduce war.

“Navid Pourmokhtari’s important challenge to the IR canon is compellingly argued and ethically urgent. It should be read by peace activists as well as disciplinary practitioners.” (Michael J. Shapiro, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States)

“As Navid Pourmokhtari tells us, mainstream IR’s narrative, with its universalistic claims, is, in reality, a story based on a Eurocentric, imperialist and gendered framework which has imprisoned us in an impoverished theoretical framework which privileges war over peace and the west over the rest. In his insightful critique, Pourmokhtari outlines an innovative paradigm shift that offers possibilities for a more peaceful and just future and an IR that can help us achieve it. This important book offers us a path forward to a better future.” (J. Ann Tickner, American University, United States)

“How can the field of International Relations reclaim its commitment towards developing knowledge for world peace when the discipline has become so fixated on questions of war? Navid Pourmokhtari makes an urgent call for a paradigm shift in IR to address this pressing question for the field. Eloquent and erudite, the book is highly recommended for all scholars and students of IR.” (Peter Nyers, McMaster University, Canada)

“Navid Pourmokhtari provides a powerful condemnation of International Relations theory by deconstructing its seemingly timeless and universalising claims. In doing so he reveals a paradigm which reproduces and conceals the racializing binaries at the heart of its disciplinary imaginary.” (David Chandler, University of Westminster, United Kingdom)

“This bold and original book makes two important contributions to the discipline of International Relations: first, it elucidates the value and utility of a discourse-theoretical approach to questions regarding (meta-)theory; second, it demonstrates the partiality and paucity of dominant schools of thought, illuminating the particularity of claims that are frequently presented as general or, at least, generalisable. The significance of this work lies in its efforts to reclaim the conditions for peace, not merely stability, as the central focus of both a disciplinary and political practice. It is essential reading for all students and scholars of world politics.” (Laura J. Shepherd, University of Sydney, Australia)

“In its early days after World War II, IR was a peace-seeking discipline. For 70 years thereafter war has been at its core. Navid Pourmokhtari is bent on changing IR’s paradigmatic priorities by extricating its knowledge from race, gender and imperial biases that sustain war-privileging. Think of the message intelligently expressed here as DEI for IR moving forward.” (Christine Sylvester, University of Connecticut, United States)

“Surveying the scholarly discipline of International Relations, Navid Pourmokhtari reveals a long-history of inward-looking debates focused on power-politics, the recurrence of war and a binary between the West and non-West. In doing so he opens up opportunities for more inclusive ways of understanding the relationship between conflict and peace.” (Roland Bleiker, University of Queensland, Australia)

“What would a more peace-minded version of IR look like? This is the key question posed in this important book. In age where the forms of warfare are changing but not the fact of war, Pourmokhtari’s call for a paradigm shift in IR scholarship could not be more timely.” (William Walters, Carleton University, Canada)

“International relations became a discipline in the aftermath of World War I. Its founding figures and the generation that succeeded them were committed to developing theories and concepts that would promote regional and world peace, economic development, and toleration of differences. Too many of today’s leading IR scholars defend the status quo – the inappropriately named “rules-based order” – and treat force as just another instrument of policy. Our discipline has lost its normative focus. Navid Pourmokhtari hopes to restore it by having us recognize the fallacy of universalist claims and the questionable binaries on which they almost invariably rest, separate the concept of peace from stability, and encourage more enlightened and effective thinking about the conditions that encourage and sustain peaceful relationships.” (Richard Ned Lebow, King's College London, United Kingdom)

“Toward a Paradigm Shift in International Relations Studies takes seriously both the discursive construction of the study of global politics as such and the normative implications of the ways that it has been constructed to this point, for scholars and for the world more broadly. The result is a smart, aspirational look forward for scholars and policy-makers that is a must-read in the field.” (Laura Sjoberg, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom)

“In this important book, Navid Pourmokhtari challenges us to think anew about international relations. By bringing new perspectives top the field, this book helps to show old problems in new light, and expertly guides readers towards a more complete understanding of world politics and its possibilities.” (Alex Bellamy, University of Queensland, Australia)

“We have long known that there are disparities between disciplinary knowledge and the realities to which it applies. In Toward a Paradigm Shift in International Relations Studies, Navid Pourmokhtari moves us beyond resignation to contemplation of this chasm toward a path to better knowing the world in order to properly minister to it. The arguments are as convincing as the prose is melodious.” (Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui, Cornell University, United States)

“At a time when the world is more needful of a new peace paradigm than ever before, Navid Pourmokhtari’s Toward a Paradigm Shift in International Relations Studies offers timely solutions to the world’s problems. Diagnosing the challenges in International Relations Studies through a carefully structured historical, academic, and intellectual analysis, Pourmokhtari also sketches pathways to new approaches and new understandings. The author’s accurate autopsy of the old paradigm and careful outlining of a new paradigm gives the reader – and the world – a chance to be careful and thoughtful of how to move forward in international relations studies. Pourmokhtari’s new paradigm presents pathways for moving beyond self-interest, competition, war, and the idolization of national sovereignty.” (Hoda Mahmoudi, University of Maryland, United States)
 

Navid Pourmokhtari is Lecturer at MacEwan University, Canada. He is also the author of Iran’s Green Movement: Everyday Resistance, Political Contestation, and Social Mobilization, published in 2021. Pourmokhtari's other recent publications have appeared in Third World Quarterly, International Sociology, Against the Current, Jadaliyya, the Journal of Human Trafficking, Sociology of Islam, Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, Foucault Studies, and the Journal of International Women’s Studies.