The conventional modern Western-centric discipline of International Relations (IR) depends on different forms of philosophical dualism to rigidify the time-space-bounded identities of human beings living in divided phenomenal worlds. Alternatively, the Global IR research programme – aided by a variety of non-dualist philosophies, such as Tianxia, Advaita, Buddhism, Sufism, Ubuntu, and Andean, among others – counts on the vision of a ‘three-dimensional reality’ or ‘trialectics’ to retrieve the indivisible phenomenal-noumenal flow of human consciousness, thereby supporting a ‘borderless ecology’ that facilitates back-and-forth movement between the seemingly separated Western and non-Western worlds.
Theoretically and practically, the Global IR research programme asserts that we concurrently live in ‘one and many worlds’: that is, the realm of ‘the international’ is a fusion of phenomena (world-in-appearance with subjective many-ness) and noumena (world-in-itself with objective oneness); and it is humanly possible to reconcile the visible many-ness of the phenomenal world with the invisible one-ness of the noumenal world. However, this research programme so far remains restricted to a few denigrated non-Western knowledge forms. To truly ‘de-centre IR knowledge’ and ‘reconcile West-non-West binaries’, it needs to engage with the hitherto untapped Western knowledge forms that share a similar non-dualist philosophical outlook, thereby releasing the much-needed empathies that can penetrate the superficially implanted borders of the West and the non-West, especially when it comes to resolving the global environmental crises.
This project aims to establish how the neglected ideas of pre-Socratic Greek thinkers – that revolve around the debates on ‘one and many worlds’ (Stokes 1972) riding on the lexes of a ‘three-dimensional reality’ (or trialectics) (Barnes 1979) – can offer cues to transform the impasses of ‘divided environmentalisms’ in current global politics. This project suggests a few saliant characteristics that can help find one’s way through the extant remains of the non-dualist pre-Socratic philosophy, and to evaluate the many formulae it offers, each as the key to understand those remains. This way, the project seeks to indicate how the pre-Socratic insights can supplement the overarching cosmovision of ‘one and many worlds’ based on trialectics, thereby expanding the existing horizons of the Global IR research programme.
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Prof. Deepshikha Shahi
O. P. Jindal Global University (India) | Political Science, International Relations
Deepshikha Shahi is Professor of International Relations at the O. P. Jindal Global University (India). She pursued research at the University of Rostock as a Humboldt Research Fellow (2024–2026) and at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, as a postdoctoral fellow (2017–2018). She has served as Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Delhi (India).
Through engagements with Indic, Islamic, Chinese, Japanese, African, and pre-Socratic Greek thought, she has developed approaches that contribute to ongoing efforts to broaden the intellectual foundations of International Relations. Her publications include the monographs Advaita as a Global International Relations Theory (2018), Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory (2019), and Global IR Research Programme: The Futuristic Foundation of One and Many (2023). She has edited Sufism: A Theoretical Intervention in Global International Relations (2020) and Nondualism in International Relations: A Methodological Reconstruction Beyond Binaries (2026). Her work has appeared in journals such as European Journal of International Relations, International Theory, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and Third World Quarterly.
Website
https://jgu.edu.in/jsia/research/centre-for-the-study-of-global-international-relations-csgir#rp-07
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Prof. Andreas Niederberger
University of Duisburg-Essen | Political, Legal and Social Philosophy
E-mail: andreas.niederberger@uni-due.de
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© Niederberger
Prof. Andreas Niederberger
University of Duisburg-Essen | Political, Legal and Social Philosophy
E-mail: andreas.niederberger@uni-due.de
Andreas Niederberger is Professor of Political, Legal and Social Philosophy at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He was a visiting professor at Saint Louis University and Northwestern University (both USA), the University of Osaka (Japan), and LUISS in Rome (Italy). His research focuses on the foundations of democracy and law, as well as questions of human rights, global justice and legitimacy, particularly in relation to war, migration, climate change and property regimes. He has led, and continues to lead, numerous research projects, including the EU Horizon 2020 research project ‘Norms and Values in the European Migration and Refugee Crisis’ (NoVaMigra), which examined whether and how the recent influx of refugees to Europe had affected European values and, more broadly, democratic institutions and procedures. Since 2021, he has been Deputy Chair of the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg. Recent publications are Philosophie der Menschenrechte (Bielefeld: utb 2025), Handbook of Migration Ethics (ed. with U. Okeja and J. Gördemann, Cham: Springer 2025), and Cosmopolitan Norms and European Values. Ethical Perspectives on Europe’s Refugee Policy (ed. with M. Göbel, New York, London: Routledge 2024).
Website
https://www.uni-due.de/philosophie/politischephilosophie/niederberger