Description:

Hendrik Spruyt examines the patterns of “international” relations beyond Europe  1500-1900. More specifically, he emphasizes the role of shared collective belief systems in various regional orders. The Islamic World, the Chinese Tributary system, and the Galactic polities of Southeast Asia operated on different principles than the Westphalian state system that was premised on the territorial conceptualization of authority and sovereignty. Studying such non-Eurocentric perspectives of “international” politics illuminates the biases in our own collective imagination, and serves to dispel the misconception that these non-European orders were incompatible with the Western system.

Hendrik Spruyt is a Norman Dwight Harris Professor of International Relations who previously taught International Relations at Columbia University (1991-1999) and Arizona State University (1999-2003) before joining the faculty at Northwestern. He received a Doctorandus from the University of Leiden, School of Law, (The Netherlands) in 1983, and his Ph. D in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego in 1991. He was chair of the Department of Political Science at Northwestern from 2005-2008, and Director of the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies from 2008-2013. Professor Spruyt has also served as co-editor of The Review of International Political Economy and has served on various editorial boards including the APSR.

The Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium brings together an interdisciplinary audience to build awareness of global research on campus. This series promotes dialogue on scholarship and develops a deeper sense of community among Buffett Institute affiliates. Each meeting lasts one hour; lunch is provided. Due to space constraints, we will not admit attendees once the space reaches capacity.