Interrogating the disciplinary biases that inform mainstream international relations (IR) today, this text examines the grand strategy of the Mughal empire under Akbar, arguing for a historico-cultural notion of power and critiquing IR's tendency to usher in a selective 'return of history'.

The book interrogates the disciplinary biases and firewalls that inform mainstream international relations today, and problematises the several tropes that have come to typify the strategic histories of post-colonial societies such as India. Questioning a range of long-held cultural representations on India, the book challenges such portrayals and underscores the centrality of context and contingency in any cultural explanation of state behaviour. It argues for a historico-cultural understanding of power and critiques IR's tendency to usher in a selective 'return of history'.

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