序章　地域研究と国際政治の間

抄録

The purpose of this volume is to review the relationship between International Politics and Regional Studies from the perspectives of each field, and to re-examine Regional Studies contribution to International Politics. It has been quite some time since Stanley Hoffmann, among others, indicated that International Relations (IR) was an American social science, and it has become commonplace to affirm that IR is not “international” at all, but is rather characterized by a pervasive Anglo-American mode of thought and resulting conceptual and spatial boundaries. Since then a limited number of studies have emerged to enhance our understanding of how IR is perceived in distinct places around the globe, and one of the most important of these is a series on “geocultural epistemologies in IR” by Arlene B. Tickner and Ole Wæver.

The configuration of the JAIR membership shows that in Japanese academic circles IR has developed in a dual format with one branch focusing on theoretical research and global studies and the other on regional studies and historical research, and, moreover, that those tendencies are different from American IR. As another distinct feature, these two areas of research do not exist in an isolated manner, and more than a few members not only carry out regional studies but also incorporate a profound knowledge of theoretical research into their work, which has led to the development of significant resources and achievements. However, it is difficult to sustain this linkage as a steady process, and it seems that the majority of members, throughout their careers, study in a very narrow range of specialization with limited crossover into alternates branches of the field.

It can be said that regional histories, as well as their political, economic, and social structures, have been formed in the context of international politics and that we cannot discuss regional issues without regard to international politics and vice versa. In this volume, by presenting the relationships between international politics and regional issues in the Middle East, Latin America, East Asia, South-East Asia, Russia and Europe, and by engaging in analysis of regional alliances in international conflict, we would like to try relativizing IR and the interaction of regional and international politics in evidence based research.