The Cairo School of an Islamic Civilizational Paradigm in International Relations: The Building Process traces the intellectual evolution of a multi-generational scholarly project developed at Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science over four decades. Rather than treating Islam as a cultural or political variable, the paradigm positions Islam as a standpoint shaping knowledge production in the discipline. It introduces a tawḥīdī (monotheism-based) epistemic framework that rethinks the claimed universality of International Relations’ metatheoretical foundations while recognizing plural worldviews and their formative role in theory, methodology, and ontology. Moving beyond traditional jurisprudential approaches, the paradigm advances a multidimensional civilizational approach to International Relations that integrates historical, ethical, cultural, and social dimensions into the analysis of global politics. This book explores the paradigm’s origins, core assumptions, conceptual architecture, and cumulative development across generations. It situates the approach primarily in relation to positivist and post-positivist traditions while also engaging non-Western approaches and emphasizes its comparative method of theorization and concept formation. Arguing for a more inclusive and epistemologically diverse understanding of global politics, The Cairo School of an Islamic Civilizational Paradigm in International Relations: The Building Process will appeal to advanced students and scholars of International Relations, catering to those with an inclusive and epistemologically diverse understanding of global politics.
