The Geopolitics of Knowledge About World Politics: A Case Study in U.S. Hegemony

Abstract

The dominant ways in which intellectuals and political elites around the world have come to think about world politics are not the result of either an open search for the best perspective or theory or a reflection of an essentially local perspective. The most prestigious repertoires of thinking about world politics represent the historical emergence of theoretical genres intimately associated with specific times and places which circulate and adapt in association with the spheres of influence of schools and authors with the best reputations and which in turn reflect the current geopolitical order. After providing a brief summary of various ways of conceiving the geography of knowledge, I present four premises for what I am calling the geopolitics of knowledge. I then consider the specific case of how a particular theoretical perspective of peculiarly American provenance came to dominate much academic thinking about world politics outside the United States.