Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Decentering International Relations, by Meghana Nayak & Eric Selbin

This is a thought provoking and worthwhile read.   The fundamental concept is that we tend to view International Relations (IR) through the lens of USA or Western European perspective, and that if one re-centers focus to other groups, things that seems obvious become -- well, less so.

The book isn't without flaws.   In particular, I was very disappointed with the section on globalization, because I couldn't discern the point that the authors were making even though it felt as though they thought they were (smugly) making some point.

Still I'd recommend this especially to folks doing business in emerging (economically) nations -- if you can avoid being put off by the academic tone of a text targeted to the classroom and not packaged for pleasant business reading.

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