Writing International Relations from the invisible side of the abyssal line

Abstract

AbstractThe article discusses the manner in which the story of the international system and the relationship between violence and civilisation that Andrew Linklater tells inViolence and Civilization in the Western States-Systemsremains 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’.