本土化视野下的印度国际关系研究

Indian International Relations:An Indigenous Perspective

国际关系不是一门美国的社会科学,而是一个全球性的学科,其首要任务应是它的科学性和解释性。但现状是西方,特别是美国拥有这个学科的学术霸权,这不可避免地将造成国际关系理论的贫困。随着“全球国际关系学”(Global IR)的兴起,广大的非西方世界开始呼吁打破国际关系知识生产的等级制,破除“中心—边缘”模式,掀起本土化国际关系研究的浪潮。作为正在崛起的大国,印度国际关系学者不再对西方的理论亦步亦趋,而是试图创造出印度特色的国际关系理论。在二十几年的探索和实践中,印度本土化国际关系研究取得了丰硕的学术成果,大致可分为三个主要流派,即史诗流派、考底利耶流派和新政事论流派,并带有三个明显的学术倾向,即非普世主义倾向、非殖民倾向和非道义倾向。这表明印度国际关系学者要从西方理论所设定的框架下自我解放出来,为印度国际关系研究的未来提供另一种知识。知识与权力往往具有同构和耦合的现象,印度的本土化国际关系研究实际上是印度崛起的一种理论反映,是印度地缘崛起的自然产物,反映了印度日益增长的政治野心和对西方霸权的不满,想要让世界听到印度崛起的声音。然而,跳出西方国际关系研究的窠臼并不容易,言“印度学派”还为时尚早。因此,对于印度国际关系学者的理论探索,人们既不应该轻视,也不应该忽视,而应该重视,并要认真研究其话语背后的政治渴望和战略意涵。

International relations(IR)is not just an American social science,but also a global discipline primarily defined by its scientific and explanatory nature.But the fact of the matter is that the West(and the US in particular)retains the academic hegemony in the discipline,which will inevitably result in the poverty of IR theory.With the rise of Global IR,the wider non-Western world has begun to call for an end to the hierarchy of knowledge production in IR and to the center-periphery model.This has led to a wave of indigenous international relations studies.In India which is a rising power,IR scholars who are no longer content with imitating Western theories,are trying to develop IR theories with Indian characteristics.In its 20 plus years of practice and exploration,the study of India’s indigenous international relations has produced a rich body of scholarship that can be broadly divided into three main streams of inquiry,namely the Epic,the Kautilyan and the Neo-Arthashastra approaches,which are respectively non-universalist,the non-colonial and non-moralist in nature.This suggests that Indian IR scholars want to free themselves from the framework imposed by Western IR theories in order to provide an alternative intellectual possibility for the future of Indian IR studies.But since knowledge and power are often isomorphic and coupled,India’s indigenous IR studies are in fact a theoretical reflection of India’s rise,a natural product of India’s geopolitical rise,a reflection of India’s growing political ambitions and dissatisfaction with Western hegemony,and a desire to make India’s rise recognized in the world.However,since it is not easy to break away from the shackle of Western IR,it is too early to speak of an“Indian school”.Therefore,the theoretical explorations of Indian IR scholars should neither be taken lightly nor ignored,but should be taken seriously,and the political aspirations and strategic implications behind their discourse should be carefully studied.