Osmanska riket och internationellt system? En studie om 1500-talets mångfaldiga interaktion i Svarta havet

Sammanfattning: International systems are currently conceived and based on the traditional four IR theories, that is realism, liberalism, constructivism and marxism. This means that political units converge and become homogeneous like the remaining political units. It occurs, advocates say, either through competition within the competitive system or through conformity since it is negligent and irrational, thus consequently facilitating the organization's transactions. Traditional IR theory argues that only the state is competitive and salient as a standardized model. However, this is a strong tendency within Eurocentric theory. Historically, empires of the early modern era demonstrated flexibility and abilities in creating cross-cultural unity with collective beliefs, rules and norms that governed political and social behavior within and between political entities. This essay questions the traditional IR theories and Eurocentric tendency in explaining the fact that there was an international system under the Ottoman Empire. With historical effort and revised theoretical starting points, this essay with its elaborated ideal type will provide new insight to an otherwise neglected time and space in IR. Thus demonstrating that the 16th-century pattern of imperial consolidation under the Ottoman Empire did not lead to extermination and forced conversions, instead, an international system of diversity, syncretism, and cooperation was created.