After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West

by Ayse Zarakol

Overview

Not being of the West; being behind the West; not being modern enough; not being developed or industrialized, secular, civilized, Christian, transparent, or democratic - these descriptions have all served to stigmatize certain states through history. Drawing on constructivism as well as the insights of social theorists and philosophers, After Defeat demonstrates that stigmatization in international relations can lead to a sense of national shame, as well as auto-Orientalism and inferior status. Ayşe Zarakol argues that stigmatized states become extra-sensitive to concerns about status, and shape their foreign policy accordingly. The theoretical argument is supported by a detailed historical overview of central examples of the established/outsider dichotomy throughout the evolution of the modern states system, and in-depth studies of Turkey after the First World War, Japan after the Second World War, and Russia after the Cold War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780511852886
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/23/2010
Series:	Cambridge Studies in International Relations , #118
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	481 KB

About the Author

Ayşe Zarakol is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University. She teaches courses on global politics, international security and political theory, and her research focuses on the social evolution of the international system and the integration of regions outside of the West into the modern international order.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Of Gates and Keepers in the International System: 1. Outsiders and insiders in the international system; 2. States as outsiders; Part II. An Imperial Message: 3. The 'barbarians': Turkey (1918–39); 4. The 'children': Japan (1945–72); 5. The 'enigma': Russia (1990–2007); 6. Conclusion: 'Zealots or Herodians'?

Editorial Reviews

After Defeat explains that—in the wake of massive, historic international defeat—Turkey, Japan and Russia adopted foreign policies to respond to the idea that they were somehow inadequate and less than the West. ..After Defeathits high notes with its unusual comparisons, elegant analysis and trenchant rethinking of international relations approaches. As such, After Defeat will appeal to foreign policy generalists, policymakers, international relations scholars as well as sociologists and political theorists.” - George Gavrilis, The Hollings Center

From the Publisher