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Writing International Relations from the invisible side of the abyssal line

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2017

Zeynep Gülşah Çapan
Zeynep Gülşah Çapan*
Affiliation:
Lecturer, International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University
*
* Correspondence to: Zeynep Gülşah Çapan, Istanbul Bilgi University, Emniyettepe Mahallesi, Kazim Karabekir Cd. No. 2, 34060, Eyup, Istanbul, Turkey. Author’s email: zgulsah@gmail.com
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Abstract

The article discusses the manner in which the story of the international system and the relationship between violence and civilisation that Andrew Linklater tells in Violence and Civilization in the Western States-Systems remains on the visible side of the absyssal line. Absyssal thinking refers to the distinctions created between visible and invisible realms and it is Eurocentrism as a system of knowledge that sustains and reproduces this abyssal line. The article will focus on two instances of reproducing this abyssal line. The first will be with respect to the way in which histories of Europe and colonialism are detached from each other. The second will be on where political and moral ‘progress’ is being located within the development of the ‘global civilizing process’.

Keywords

EurocentrismHistoryAbyssal Line
Type
Forum: Linklater’s Violence and Civilization in the Western States-Systems
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 602 - 611
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2017 

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References

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