A Constructivist Approach to Malik Bennabi’s Theory of the Islamic Commonwealth

The present study seeks to examine and provide a metatheoretical account of the geopolitical and civilizational thought of Malik Bennabi, the prominent Algerian thinker, within the framework of social constructivist theory. In the twentieth century, following the experience of direct colonialism and the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate, the Islamic world faced a profound structural and identity crisis, compounded by the forced imposition of the Westphalian nation-state system. In response to this crisis, Malik Bennabi proposed the idea of an “Islamic Commonwealth” not merely as a temporary political and military alliance, but as a grand civilizational-cultural strategy for overcoming this historical impasse. Accordingly, the fundamental objective of this study is to move beyond reductionist and materialist analyses of the causes of decline in Muslim societies and to offer a post-positivist reinterpretation of Bennabi’s theory, thereby illuminating its potential for generating an indigenous, identity-based, and non-Western model of regionalism within the international system. In pursuit of this objective, the central problem of this study concerns the feasibility of reconciling the indigenous and endogenous concepts in Bennabi’s thought with the foundations of modern international relations and contemporary crises. Accordingly, the central question of the study is: How do the key concepts of Malik Bennabi’s theory of the Islamic Commonwealth correspond and organically relate to the ontological and epistemological assumptions of the metatheory of social constructivism? More specifically, this study seeks to determine how the four fundamental pillars of constructivism-namely, the primacy of ideas and layers of meaning over material factors; the precedence and primacy of identity over national interests; the mutual constitution of structure and agency; and the predominance of the logic of appropriateness over the logic of consequences-are reproduced and conceptualized within Bennabi’s epistemic framework and his structural vision for the Islamic world. To answer the aforementioned question and address the research problem, the study employs a descriptive-analytical method and
the technique of qualitative content analysis of texts. In the methodological process, the conceptual and metatheoretical framework of social constructivism was first examined
and elaborated, with particular emphasis on the views of theorists such as Alexander Wendt, Peter Katzenstein, and Martha Finnemore. Subsequently, adopting a text-centered approach, the fundamental components and dimensions of Malik Bennabi’s civilizational theory were extracted from his later works, particularly Wajhat al-ʿĀlam al-Islāmī
(The Orientation of the Islamic World) and his dedicated treatise on the “Islamic Commonwealth,” and were then systematically compared with the indicators and assumptions of the constructivist school. Through this process, the theoretical connections between the idea of the Islamic Commonwealth and established concepts in the international relations literature were theoretically formulated. The findings of this study indicate that, unlike rationalist approaches such as realism, which seek to explain power and security primarily in terms of material resources and military capabilities, Malik Bennabi locates the roots of the decline and backwardness of the Islamic world in the breakdown of intersubjective ideas and the loss of the social efficacy of faith. The most significant manifestation of this theoretical correspondence is found in the central concept of “colonizability” (qābiliyyat al-istiʿmār). From a constructivist perspective, Bennabi regards colonialism not primarily as an objective and geographical phenomenon, but as a defective cognitive and identity structure that has hollowed out the agency of Muslims from within. The idea of the Islamic Commonwealth represents an attempt to transform
this intersubjective understanding and redefine Muslims’ identity from that of passive, colonizable subjects into active, civilization-building agents, organized as a “third pole” within the bipolar order of the Cold War. Furthermore, by rejecting the ineffective dichotomy between the “romantic revival of a unified caliphate” and “separate imported nation-states,” Bennabi’s proposed model introduces a new institutional structure based on a plurality of agents within a unified macrostructure. By dividing the Islamic world into
six geographical-cultural regions—Arab, Iranian, Sino-Mongolian, Malay, African, and European—he proposes a gradual, functionalist process of integration. Within this model, overarching civilizational identity functions as an independent variable and the primary source for defining states’ national interests. Consequently, interactions among Islamic states are grounded not in the mere calculation of material costs and benefits and adherence to the logic of consequences, but in normative commitments and endogenous Islamic values, and are guided by the logic of appropriateness. Another significant finding of the study is that this identity- and civilization-oriented approach is not confined to the historical circumstances of the mid-twentieth century; rather, it possesses considerable potential for reinterpretation within the contemporary geopolitical landscape. The theoretical framework of the Islamic Commonwealth can serve as a robust operational foundation for explaining the structural requirements of the concept of resistance and for supporting the broader discourses of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Given that the theory emphasizes identity-based independence and the rejection of hegemony, it closely aligns with the doctrine of a new Islamic civilizational project and the strategy of Islamic unity. Moreover, Bennabi’s analytical framework can make an additional contribution to the conceptual enrichment and advancement of Iran’s higher-level policy documents, particularly the “Second Step of the 
Revolution” Statement and the “Iranian-Islamic Model of Progress” document. It explains how networks of meaning and local centers of resistance can, through the accumulation of social efficacy and the transformation of social practices, develop from dispersed units into a stable and influential power bloc within the international system. Finally, the present study concludes that Malik Bennabi’s theory should be regarded as a pioneering form of civilizational constructivism. Chronologically preceding Alexander Wendt and the formal emergence of post-positivist and identity-oriented approaches in the West, Bennabi adopted a distinctly problem-driven approach in emphasizing the social nature of power, security, and anarchy in international politics. The overall conclusion of this study suggests that the idea of the “Commonwealth” within Bennabi’s epistemic framework is not merely a transient political and security alliance, but rather an identity-based security community designed, through the mutual constitution of structure and agency, to safeguard the authenticity, agency, and integrity of the Islamic ummah in the modern era. Bennabi’s thought demonstrates that civilizational paralysis and fragmentation in the Islamic world are not rigid, immutable material realities; rather, they are socially constructed phenomena whose transformation is possible only through the reconstruction of identity-based and cognitive structures and the conscious transformation of the actors’ intersubjective practices.