1. Expanding the Expansion of International Society: a new approach with empirical illustrations from West African and European interaction, 1400-1883
- Author:
- John Anthony Pella, Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 01-2014
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of International Relations and Development
- Institution:
- Central and East European International Studies Association
- Abstract:
- The purpose of this article is to expand upon Hedley Bull and Adam Watson's work The Expansion of International Society (1984a), initially theoretically and thereafter through empirical illustrations. The premise is that Bull and Watson's approach can only take study of the expansion so far, as it creates silences that neglect aspects of international history that were central to the expansion process. As such, I initially focus on three features of Bull and Watson's theoretical approach that are thought to create these silences and a problematic Euro-centrism: historical periodisation, a neglect of non-European regions and the system/society distinction. I thereafter argue that the original Expansion's periodisation scheme needs to be broadened, that research into non-European regions before European contact is necessary and that interaction at the world society level should be considered. The benefits of this new approach are then illustrated, first in a study of the West African international society in its own right, and then in a study of the Afro-European interaction that took place in the context of that society. Ultimately, this new approach suggests that the expansion process was driven largely by the exchange of norms and ideas at the world society level and by the emergence of mutually constructed institutions over the course of several centuries.
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Europe