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literature and highlight its uniqueness. Then, it will briefly explain certain key terms used in the book and make a brief comment on the liberal democratic perspective of Jackson. His perspective on history has provided a framework to operationalise the key terms which recurrently surface in this study. Second, it will spell out some of the central arguments in this study. It will also take note of the author's effort to relate these arguments to some of the dominant schools of thought in social scientific research. Finally, it will offer a few critical reflections on the book as a whole.
LOCATING THE STUDY IN A PERSPECTIVE
Situating and theorizing the changing predicament of the post colonial states in Afro-Asia in contemporary international relations is, by any stretch of imagination, a difficult task. So far, two contending schools of thought have attempted to provide some durable insights into the existential transitions in the post colonial states and societies. The first one has been represented by the 'modernisation' theorists of the behavioural school. The term modernisation, through their writings, can be understood as a specific process of historical transition as well as certain developmental policy. The modernisation theorists, by and large, endeavored to monitor and interpret the progress of traditional (non-western) societies towards modernisation. They also underlined the significance of social and cultural processes and their influence on the state while analyzing intra and inter-state politics of traditional societies. A host of behavioural studies which sustained modernisation theories dominated the realm of social theory during the sixties.
The second school of thought has been represented by the dependency theorists of neo-Marxist persuasion. This school has been primarily concerned with the phenomenon of underdevelopment that has characterised non-western societies. While analysing some of the complex dimensions of underdevelopment the dependency theorists have continuously reflected on certain significant areas like the history of the development of capitalism and its interconnections with the growth of imperialism, the nature of class formation and the role of state in the Third World. As far as the development debates are concerned, the dependency perspective was in the forefront of social theory since it stunningly brought home some of the discomforting realities about the political economy of underdevelopment. The modernisation theorists and the dependency theorists in their efforts to construct inter-disciplinary modes of approaching / realities established viable links between political science and sociology and political science and economics respectively. Both these approaches almost achieved the status of a paradigm.2
Having underscored the relevance of the two most dominant schools in the context of developing states and societies of Afro-Asia, it might