Before the West The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders

“I had two goals in writing this book. First, I wanted to create a non-Eurocentric version of international history and world politics as understood from an Eastern perspective.... Second... given Asia’s political and economic resurgence, and the many dangerous paths Asian historiography could take in the near future, I wanted to present a narrative of Asian history that is not the preserve of any ‘nation,’ ‘civilization,’ ‘race,’ or ‘religion.’... Before the West begins with the empire of Genghis Khan in the 13th century and tells the history of international relations from then to the 17th century (and its implications for the modern international order from the 19th century to the present). The center of the world during this period is not the West, not Europe. The world order is centered on Asia: Politics is there, trade is there, competition is there, prosperity is there. The West joins the story in the book from the end. Because at least until the 16th century, Europeans were not important actors in the story, and certainly not the leading actor; they were on the fringes of the international system at that time... It was the 'Rise of the West' that made it possible for our modern international order to emerge in the 19th century, and Europe/the West has been sitting in the privileged seat at the center of this order for the last two centuries. This phenomenon has not only continuously shaped our current politics, but has also distorted our understanding of political world history, and therefore our theories of international politics. Many have invariably read the end of the story backwards from this date... As for the projection of the history told in the book today... No order, no matter how permanent it may seem at the time, lasts forever.” We are happy to present this book, which was published in English by Cambridge University Press in March 2022 and has won numerous international awards to date, to you in Renan Akman's Turkish.