This book presents a challenge to the discipline of international relations (IR) to rethink itself, in the light of both its own modern origins, and the two centuries of world history that have shaped it. By tracking the development of thinking about IR, and the practice of world politics, this book shows how they relate to each other across five time periods from nineteenth-century colonialism, through two world wars, the Cold War and decolonization, to twenty-first-century globalization. It gives equal weight to both the neglected voices and histories of the Global South, and the traditionally dominant perspectives of the West, showing how they have moved from nearly complete separation to the beginnings of significant integration. The authors argue that IR needs to continue this globalizing movement if it is to cope with the rapidly emerging post-Western world order, with its more diffuse distribution of wealth, power and cultural authority.

本书向国际关系（IR）学科提出了一个挑战，即根据其自身的现代起源和塑造它的两个世纪的世界历史来重新思考自己。通过追踪关于国际关系的思考和世界政治实践的发展，本书展示了它们在五个时期的相互关系，从19世纪的殖民主义，到两次世界大战，冷战和非殖民化，再到21世纪的全球化。它对全球南方被忽视的声音和历史，以及西方传统上占主导地位的观点给予了同等的重视，展示了它们是如何从几乎完全分离到开始进行重大整合的。作者认为，如果要应对迅速出现的后西方世界秩序，以及其财富、权力和文化权威的分散分布，IR需要继续这一全球化运动。