The World Imagined
Collective Beliefs and Political Order in the Sinocentric, Islamic and Southeast Asian International Societies

Spruyt takes an inter-disciplinary approach to explain how collective belief systems organized three non-European societies c.1500–1900, and how these polities engaged the European colonial powers.

Hendrik Spruyt (Author)

9781108811743, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 July 2020

410 pages, 6 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.1 x 2.1 cm, 0.58 kg

'… this book offers a distinctive perspective on the variety of historical international orders. It challenges conventional modernist accounts of the 'expansion' of the Western 'international society' and the 'formation' of the modern international system.' Zheng Chen , China International Strategy Review

Taking an inter-disciplinary approach, Spruyt explains the political organization of three non-European international societies from early modernity to the late nineteenth century. The Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires; the Sinocentric tributary system; and the Southeast Asian galactic empires, all which differed in key respects from the modern Westphalian state system. In each of these societies, collective beliefs were critical in structuring domestic orders and relations with other polities. These multi-ethnic empires allowed for greater accommodation and heterogeneity in comparison to the homogeneity that is demanded by the modern nation-state. Furthermore, Spruyt examines the encounter between these non-European systems and the West. Contrary to unidirectional descriptions of the encounter, these non-Westphalian polities creatively adapted to Western principles of organization and international conduct. By illuminating the encounter of the West and these Eurasian polities, this book serves to question the popular wisdom of modernity, wherein the Western nation-state is perceived as the desired norm, to be replicated in other polities.

Part I. Beyond the Westphalian Gaze: 1. Introduction
2. The Historical-Sociological Approach to Understanding Order in International Systems
3. Collective Beliefs and Visions of Order
Part II. The East Asian Sino-Centric Order: 4. Gathering All Under Heaven: East Asian Collective Beliefs and International Society
5. The East Asian Inter-State Society and the Westphalian System
Part III. The Islamic Cultural-Historical Community: 6. Lords of the Auspicious Conjunction: The Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires and the Islamic Ecumene
7. Collective Imagination and the Conduct of Inter-Polity Relations
Part IV. Collective Imagination among the Polities of Southeast Asia: 8. The Galactic Polities of Southeast Asia
9. Inter-State Relations and the Encounter with the Colonial Powers
10. Conclusion: Viewing the World in One's own Image.

Subject Areas: Geopolitics [JPSL], International relations [JPS], Sociology [JHB], General & world history [HBG]