Critical Theorisations of Western Commonality

Abstract

As a form of commonality that has influenced the unfolding of international relations at large the West has become increasingly contested, with extensive debate emerging about the West’s continued viability in the face of various internal and external challenges. Underlying debates about its survival, however, are deeper questions about the very nature of the West. When looking at the West from an inside-out perspective this has seen a growing problematisation of the relationship between the two constitutive poles of the West, Europe and America. In this respect questions exist for IR theory of how best to comprehend and explain the bonds of association between Europe and America. On this issue different approaches in IR not only provide profoundly different understandings concerning the essence of the Atlantic relationship and the West at large, but also provide significantly divergent predictions as to how the bonds are likely to develop. At the same time, there has also been a growing attempt to re-theorise the West’s constitutive relationship with its outside, which in turn raise questions about authorship, audience, the universality of the West and whether it is possible for previous hierarchical constructions to be transcended. As such, various theoretical questions have been raised regarding the essence of western commonality. The aim of the panel is to draw upon these emergent debates and to bring together researchers from various theoretical approaches engaged in re-theorising the West. In particular the panel focuses on a theorization of western commonality in the context of globalization and the various forms of togetherness and contest that have emerged with America and Europe narrating themselves in rather different ways in that context.

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