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Abstract

Students of realism often find themselves limited in their appreciation of the paradigm’s dynamic characteristics due to the dominance of mainstream literature, which primarily presents the ideas and views of thinkers from just one part of the world. Although there is nothing wrong with promoting distinguished thinkers from the West whose ideas resonate strongly with contemporary realist analysis, this article seeks to broaden the conversation within realism through the lens of Global International Relations. Although non-Western scholars have recently endeavored to present novel variants of realism that reflected important experiences of the developing world, these bottom-up contributions have often faced difficulties penetrating the center of knowledge production within the realist school. Accordingly, this article argues that a top-down approach would more effectively encourage pluralism within the realist school. However, this would require broadening realism’s prized intellectual tradition. Therefore, this article seeks to widen the scope of realism’s intellectual roots by capitalizing on the contributions of ancient Indian political thinker Kautilya and his Arthashastra within it. A top- down approach to pursuing Global International Relations may provide more opportunities for contemporary non-Western realist scholars to promote their work within the theoretical school of thought.

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