Is IR Theory White? Racialised Subject-Positioning in Three Canonical Texts

Racism is a historically specific structure of modern global power which generates hierarchies of the human and affirms White supremacy. This has far-reaching material and epistemological consequences in the present, one of which is the production and naturalisation of White-racialised subject posit...

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Veröffentlicht in:Millennium Jg. 49; H. 1; S. 3 - 31
1. Verfasser: Sabaratnam, Meera
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2020
Sage Publications Ltd
Schlagworte:
Academic discourse
Academic writing
Attention deficits
Discourse
Epistemology
Hegemony
Ignorance
Innocence
Interconnections
International relations
Keohane, Robert
Positioning
Power structure
Race
Race relations
Racialization
Racism
Social theories
Theory
Waltz, Kenneth (1924-2013)
White supremacy
raza
race
discours
subject-positions
racialisation
discurso
teoría de la Relaciones Internacionales
IR theory
théorie des relations internationales
Whiteness
discourse
ISSN:0305-8298, 1477-9021
Online-Zugang:Volltext
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Zusammenfassung:Racism is a historically specific structure of modern global power which generates hierarchies of the human and affirms White supremacy. This has far-reaching material and epistemological consequences in the present, one of which is the production and naturalisation of White-racialised subject positions in academic discourse. This article develops a framework for analysing Whiteness through subject-positioning, synthesising insights from critical race scholarship that seek to dismantle its epistemological tendencies. This framework identifies White subject-positioning as patterned by interlocking epistemologies of immanence, ignorance, and innocence. The article then interrogates how these epistemological tendencies produce limitations and contradictions in international theory through an analysis of three seminal and canonical texts: Kenneth Waltz’s Theory of International Politics (1979), Robert Keohane’s After Hegemony (1984) and Alexander Wendt’s Social Theory of International Politics (1999). It shows that these epistemologies produce contradictions and weaknesses within the texts by systematically severing the analysis of the international system and the ‘West’ from its actual imperial conditions of possibility. The article outlines pathways for overcoming these limitations and suggests that continued inattention to the epistemological consequences of race for International Relations (IR) theory is intellectually unsustainable.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0305-8298
1477-9021
DOI:10.1177/0305829820971687