A long-overlooked partnership: How Area Studies can improve the field of International Relations

Nowadays, the discipline of International Relations (IR) is undergoing a profound transformation, aiming at becoming more plural, more diverse, more inclusive, and truly ‘global’. Henceforth emerges the need to adjust our theoretical frameworks toadequately incorporate the increasing plurality of visions and the diversity of authorships that currently populate the IR academic panorama. In this article, I make the case for a deeper, more meaningful, and more horizontal academic partnership between International Relations and Area Studies (AS). I believe it is the most appropriate way to decentre and pluralise the discipline of IR, via the attainment of profound, context-specific and locally situated knowledge of regional orders. As a preliminary step to further the engagement between these two disciplines, I address some aspects where AS and IR can establish a mutually enriching relationship. I do so by focussing on the English School of International Relations, while extending this call to entwine AS with other IR theoreticaltraditions.