Dialogical international relations: Gandhi, Tagore and self-transformation

Abstract

In this chapter, I wish to take seriously David Blaney and Naeem Inayatullah’s (1994, 342) evocative call for the ‘possibility of a conversation of cultures that is found in the space bounded by an international society of both common values and commitments and diversity.’ An appeal made some time ago (in 1994), it remains as relevant in thinking about global encounters between cultures today given increasing global violence. Is it possible to think about non-hegemonic encounters between peoples in a world fraught with inequality, climate crises, and rising intolerance of various kinds? And those that celebrate plurality while also reasserting the language of universal(s)? Blaney and Inayatullah (1994, 342) do believe so, arguing that ‘this possibility, or hope, must be considered in the face of the serious barriers to conversation posed by a hierarchically ordered international society.’ Despite these constraints, how do they propose to undertake such a dialogue?.