International Relations, as a discipline, tends to focus upon European and Western canons of modern social and political thought. Alternatively, this book explores the global imperial and colonial context within which knowledge of modernity has been developed.

Biographies: 1. Non-Western thought and International Relations Robbie Shilliam 2. The perilous but unavoidable intellectual terrain of the "non-West" Robbie Shilliam Part I : Colonial Conditions 3. On colonial modernity: Civilization versus nationhood in Cuba, c.1840 Gerard Aching 4. Anti-Racism and Internationalism in the thought and practice of Cabral, Neto, Mondlane and Machel Branwen Gruffyd Jones 5. Voices from the "Jewish Colony": Sovereignty, Power, Secularization and the Outside Within Willi Goetschel Part II:Cultural Contexts 6. International Relations of Modernity in Sayyid Qutb's thoughts on Sovereignty: The Notion of Democratic Participation in the Islamic Canon Sayed Khatab 7. Decoding Political Islam: the International Historical Sociology of Ali Shariati's Political Thought Kamran Matin 8. Beyond Orientalism and "Reverse Orientalism": Through the Looking Glass of Japanese Humanism Ryoko Nakano 9. Culture in Contemporary IR theory: The Chinese Provocation Arif Dirlik Part III: Beyond the Nation-State 10. Alternative sources of cosmopolitanism: Nationalism, universalism and Créolité in Francophone Caribbean thought Martin Munro and Robbie Shilliam 11. The Internationalist Nationalist: Pursuing an Ethical Modernity with Jawaharlal Nehru Priya Chacko 12. Radical anti-colonial thought, anti-colonial Internationalism, and the politics of human solidarities Anthony Bogues Reflections: 13. Untimely Reflections Mustapha Pasha