In recent years debates about the nature and future of the West
have been high on the political agenda. Prognoses of the West's
imminent demise have been countered by those arguing for its
continued relevance, or those arguing that while the West will
survive its nature, and the balance of power between its
constituent units, is transforming.
This book argues that understanding contemporary developments
requires subjecting the very idea of the West to critical scrutiny
and in particular asking what kind of concept it actually is.
Locating the West as a discursive concept the book argues attempts
to save, fix or reclaim the meaning of the West are illustrative of
political agendas rather than indicative of accurate claims about
the essential nature of the West. In contrast, the book argues that
as a concept the West is impregnated with various discursive
legacies, the most embedded of which are those of a civilisational,
modern and political West. However, while attempts to define the
West's essence are therefore doomed to fail, given the concept's
historical and discursive flexibility, such attempts reaffirm the
legitimising role which claims to the West continue to perform.
Beyond this, the book challenges traditional genealogies of the
West, which overwhelmingly depict the West as an inside-out
concept. In contrast, the book argues that historically outsiders
have played an important role in defining the nature of the West
and constituting it as a political subject; processes that remain
evident today.
This book will particularly interest students of critical
security studies, critical geopolitics, European politics, American
politics and IR theory.
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