Dr Atsuko Watanabe is an Associate Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation.

---

Dr Watanabe’s research examines political geography, international relations theory, and global intellectual history. Her current work is on post-Western international relations theory, in which she explores how geo-political concepts historically travelled across regions and how they were interpreted and mutated into local contexts. She is in the process of completing an edited volume entitled Modern Japanese Political Thought and International Relations: Encountering Difference in Japan since the 19th Century, which brings together a diverse group of scholars from various disciplines across Europe, Asia, and North America. The book concentrates on concepts and human collectives, rather than individual thinkers, and provides a unique perspective on the question of how to do Global IR, with the aim of going beyond the theoretical divide of the West and non-West.