The ancient Indian text of Kautilya's Arthasastra comes forth as a valuable non-Western
resource for understanding contemporary International Relations (IR). However Kautilya's
Arthasastra largely suffers from the problem of 'presentism' whereby present-day assumptions
of the dominant theoretical models of Classical Realism and Neorealism are read back into it
thereby disrupting open reflections on Kautilya's Arthasastra which could retrieve its
'alternative assumptions' and 'unconventional traits'. This book attempts to enable Kautilya's
Arthasastra to break free from the problem of presentism - it does so by juxtaposing the
elements of continuity and change that showed up at different junctures of the life-history of
both 'Kautilya's Arthasastra' and 'Eurocentric IR'. The overall exploratory venture leads to a
Kautilyan non-Western eclectic theory of IR - a theory which moderately assimilates
miscellaneous research traditions of Eurocentric IR and in addition delivers a few
innovative features that could potentially uplift not only Indian IR but also Global IR.
