Good International Citizenship and Non-Western International Relations: Exploring Linkages and Contributions

The research agenda of non-Western International Relations (IR) favours greater pluralism and inclusivity in the IR discipline, and allows for reconsidering how established IR concepts can apply to non-Western contexts. This chapter provides a discussion of good international citizenship to enquire how non-Western IR provides the conceptual basis for relaunching good international citizenship as a framework for examining the agency of non-Western states. The chapter argues that while good international citizenship has been criticised for its Western-centrism and underlying liberal inclinations, it can also serve as the analytical vehicle for evaluating the foreign policies of non-Western states and their engagement with the liberal order. Good international citizenship comprises a novel analytical approach for examining how altruism, exceptionalism, and morality shape the foreign policies of non-Western states, and contributes to new ways of theorising IR across the West/non-West divide.