Title:
International
Relations and Islamic Studies: Breaking New Ground
Abstract:
International Relations (IR) as a
field is not a unilateral project rather it is an intellectual platform. This
book seeks to explore Islamic contributions to this field. The inclusion of
Muslim contributions is not meant to create an isolationist, judicious divide
between what is Islamic and what is not. Instead, the book hopes to act on the
inclusion of that knowledge as a building bloc in the field of IR. Thus, it is premised
on the idea that knowledge is fluid: peoples adopt and utilize thoughts and
ideas regardless of faith, gender, nation, etc. The mainstream idea that all
knowledge presented by the West is from an “Orientalist” perspective or that
there is a “clash of civilizations” are both notions that are antithetical to
the goal of this project. Our primal aim is to develop and sustain a body of
knowledge that addresses the theories and practices of the Islamic civilization
and of Muslim societies with regards to international affairs and to the
discipline of IR.
Islam as a faith
prizes and encourages scientific research, which is particularly exemplified in
the history of al-Andalus, Islamic Spain. Muslims’ contributions to the
European Enlightenment are historically proven. Therefore, epistemologically
this book asks the question:
Is Islamic International
Relations thought and practice in congruence with contemporary IR theories or
not? Comparatively, what are the similarities and differences? If there are
differences, what are they and why do they exist? Can Islamic episteme
influence contemporary IR theory?
The
purpose of this book is to start a dialogue based on all the queries stated
above. The chapters will discuss comparative research between IR and Islam. One
of the chapters will look into classical and contemporary treaties between
Muslim and non-Muslim regimes as sources of Islamic international law. Other
chapters will utilize grand narratives such as ‘dialogue/alliance of
civilizations’ and ‘religious defamation’ that show relatively successful
proximities of power and influence within and among international and political
institutions, e.g. the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the UN’s
Alliance of Civilizations. A critical exploration of the impact of current political
and social conditions is having on Islamist political concepts. Relation of
Islamic movements to nationalism, the place of ummah in international
politics, the existence of potential alternative paradigms of International
Relations within Islamic history, and reasons of the incapability of Muslims to
unite will also be discussed, while other chapters will focus on Yusuf
al-Qaradawi and Sayyid Qutb’s worldviews of the international society.
Target Audience:
The main target audience of the book
is represented by students and academicians of International Relations and
International Relations Theory. Students and academicians of Islamic Studies
represent a potential secondary audience. More widely, the book also targets informed
readers interested in the politics of Islam and in Muslim politics.
Market and Competition:
The edited volume is part of a very
recent but steadily growing number of studies enquiring non-Western International
Relations theories and practices. The market and general public have shown a
clear interest in the study of discourses and practices related to the Islamic
world. Apart from a recent book edited by one of the editors of the proposed
volume, the book would be the first edited volume entirely dedicated to
theories and practices of the Islamic civilization and of Muslim societies with
regards to international affairs and to the discipline of IR. The first book that
tries to put forward a comprehensive study of comparative research between
International Relations and Islamic Studies.
Editors:
Abdelkader, Deina is
currently an associate professor in the department of political science at the
University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Abdelkader is a Comparitivist and
International Relations specialist. Her scholarly interests and research, focus
on the Middle East and North Africa, Comparative Democratization in the Muslim
World, Islamic Activism, and the Role of Muslim Women in Religious
Interpretation. She is the author of Social Justice in Islam (2000) and Islamic
Activists: The Anti-Enlightenment Democrats (Pluto Press, 2011). She has also
authored a number of articles; her latest is: Coercion, Peace and the Issue of
Jihad in the Digest of Middle East Studies, and a book chapter titled:
“Modernity, Islam and Religious Activism”, The New Global Order and the Middle
East, Ashgate Publishers, (2012) Abdelkader is also one of two women on the
Islamic Jurisprudential Council of North America (Fiqh Council of North
America) and she is also part of the editorial board of the Digest of Middle
East Studies, and the new President of Voile: “Voices of Islamic Law and
Ethics”.
<deina_abdelkader@uml.edu>
Adiong, Nassef
Manabilang is a student of theories of International Relations, politics of
Islam(icate), integration of Muslims in Europe, and with research interests in
the concepts of nation-state, civilization, and European polity. He is the
author of the following articles: “Nation-State in IR and Islam” in the Journal
of Islamic State Practice in International Law, “The U.S. and Israel
Securitization of Iran’s Nuclear Energy” in The Quarterly Journal of
Political Studies of Islamic World, “The Palestinian Refugee Question: A
Constitutive Constructivist Interpretation” in Alternatives: Turkish
Journal of International Relations, “Ideology that Spawns Islamist
Militancy” in Frank Shanty’s Counterterrorism: From the Cold War to the
War on Terror, and encyclopaedic entries such as civilization, nation,
nation-state, International Relations, nationalism, pan-Islamism, Philippines,
Qatar, and Suez Canal for various publishers including ABC-CLIO, SAGE
Publications, Inc., and Wiley-Blackwell. His first edited book entitled “International
Relations and Islam: Diverse Perspectives” is published by Cambridge
Scholars Publishing on August 2013. <info@nassef-m-adiong.com>
Mauriello, Raffaele
is an historian of the contemporary Near and Middle East. He holds a Ph.D.
in Islamic Civilization: History and Philology from the Sapienza, University of
Rome (Italy). He has published several peer-reviewed essays and chapters in
edited volumes on Shi‘a Islam history and on Iranian and Iraqi geopolitical
affairs. He is also a translator of Arabic and Persian languages. In 2013, he
was awarded the World Prize for the Book of the Year of the Islamic Republic of
Iran in the field of Islamic Studies for his monograph Descendants of
the Family of the Prophet in Contemporary History: A Case Study, the Šī‘ī
Religious Establishment of al-Naǧaf (Iraq) (Rivista degli Studi
Orientali-Fabrizio Serra editore: Rome-Pisa December 2011).
<raffaele.mauriello@me.com>.
Total Word Count: approximately
around 54,600 to 78,500 words including bibliography or references
