is a systemic theory, not of how states interact with each other or how the system affects the state, but it is rather a concept of world order that focuses on the relations between the Muslim/Arab and the non-Muslim/Arab sphere and how that realm should be ordered. Islam however, many of its believers would claim, accounts for all areas of social interaction. Unlike Christianity, which by its very nature allows states to separate the business of state-craft and the business of personal religion, (Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s) a concept of secular political sovereignty that became a universal tenant of Western political thinking and diplomacy through the Treaty of Augsburg (1555) and the Peace of Westphalia (1648). Islam then, as many of its champions would proclaim, is a complete social, political, economic and foreign policy system. The only sources for inquiry have already been revealed through the Hadith and Quran. It does not seek in anyway to understand through an investigation of the observable or causal forces. A possible explanation for this is that Islam is at once a non-Westphalian discourse and a theory that is grounded to neither positivists nor post-positivists inquiry.
paradigms not as an approach in and of itself. However, these resources view Islam as a factor to be understood in the context of existing I.R. There is a wealth of literature devoted to the study of Islam within International Relations, a subject which has grown exponentially in this decade. in its own right, as an al siyasi al Islami (Islamic political order) not as a factor which influences I.R may well be a more intriguing quest. However, observing Islam as a theory of I.R. Working within the traditional confines of I.R theory possibly it is difficult to observe Islam in isolation, as states in the Middle East have since their formation in the post-colonial era acted with few exceptions in their own self interest. Proctor however was attempting to examine Islam’s influence on individual sovereign state behaviour, and considering the Iranian Revolution of 1979 had yet to occur his point could have been perceived to be plausible in the International Relations study of the day. The notion that Islam could be influential upon international affairs and should be an independent subject of study he claimed would be a difficult argument to make. Harris Proctor argued in his book Islam and International Relations that the idea that there is a connection between Islam and the conduct of I.R.