UMMATIC SECURITY: CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES AND THEIR CONCEPTUAL AND EMPIRICAL DIMENSIONS

Abstract

In the contemporary world, like any other nation, the Muslim Ummah as a whole is governed by international relations (IR) theory or theories, which define the relations between states, communities, people, cultures, and institutions. Despite being free from the reign of colonial powers, the Muslim Ummah still lags behind the rest of the developed world in political and socioeconomic stability and prosperity. The present paper analyzes various IR theories to determine whether the lack of progress of the Muslim Ummah is due to the application of these theories or if it is the irrelevance of these theories which hinder the process. Furthermore, it addresses the key challenges that the Muslim Ummah faces and introduces IslÄm as an IR theory.