Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Prelude

   • Deepshikha Shahi

   Pages 1-12

3. Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra: A Philosophical Reconstruction

   • Deepshikha Shahi

   Pages 13-56

4. Kautilya Meets Buddha: Arthaśāstra Between the Realpolitik and Moralpolitik of Aśoka’s Mauryan Empire

   • Deepshikha Shahi

   Pages 57-93

5. Kautilya Reincarnated: Steering Arthaśāstra Toward an Eclectic Theory of International Relations

   • Deepshikha Shahi

   Pages 95-126

6. Postlude

   • Deepshikha Shahi

   Pages 127-143

7. Back Matter

   Pages 145-167

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The ancient Indian text of Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra comes forth as a valuable non-Western resource for understanding contemporary International Relations (IR). However, Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra largely suffers from the problem of ‘presentism’, whereby present-day assumptions of the dominant theoretical models of Classical Realism and Neorealism are read back into it, thereby disrupting open reflections on Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra which could retrieve its ‘alternative assumptions’ and ‘unconventional traits’. This book attempts to enable Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra to break free from the problem of presentism – it does so by juxtaposing the elements of continuity and change that showed up at different junctures of the life-history of both ‘Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra’ and ‘Eurocentric IR’. The overall exploratory venture leads to a Kautilyan non-Western eclectic theory of IR – a theory which moderately assimilates miscellaneousresearch traditions of Eurocentric IR, and, in addition, delivers a few innovative features that could potentially uplift not only Indian IR, but also Global IR.

• Kautilya
• Political Realist
• extra-political Realist
• realpolitik
• moralpolitik
• Aśoka
• Kautilyan
• Buddhist
• Moral philosophy
• Social Constructivism
• Indian IR
• Global IR
• Arthaśāstra
• Sāṃkhya
• Yoga
• Lokāyata
• commonalities
• non-Western IR

“In her attempt to analyse Kautilya’s Arthasastra, Shahi has demonstrated great academic objectivity and distinction and has made a valuable contribution to reordering the mental bookshelf of international scholarship on IR.” (Punsara Amarasinghe, International Affairs, Vol. 96 (4), 2020)

• University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

  Deepshikha Shahi

Deepshikha Shahi is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, India. She previously studied at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research/Käte Hamburger-Kolleg, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She is the author of Advaita as a Global International Relations Theory.

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