ARE GLOBAL ETHICS A WESTERN CONSTRUCT? AN HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF PRE-WESTPHALIAN POLITICAL MORALITY IN ISLAMIC LITERATURE

Abstract

Pre-World War western developmental historicism presumed a Eurocentric history of mankind. Perceiving themselves as global leaders tasked with a ‘White Man’s Burden’ to civilize the world with their leading advancements in industry and political morality, western leaders and scholars insisted that the devastation caused by European colonialism was benevolent in its attempt to educate the barbarian east. A language barrier coupled with wilful ignorance of non-western literature discussing political morality permitted European scholars and thinkers to insist that the Westphalian settlement was the first treaty of its kind breaking the cycle of anarchy. This bias has never abated with most of western academia continuing to ignore non-western scholarship on international relations such that contemporary scholars, such as those of the English School continue to suggest that modern global ethics are uniquely western. An analysis of pre-Westphilian Islamic literature reveals conspicuous discussions on political morality and global ethics with stark similarities to modern concepts of international law, suggesting that at the very least, global ethics are a more universal cross-culture phenomenon refuting the Eurocentric narrative of unique western moral development.