Decentering International Relations

by Nayak, Meghana; Selbin, Eric

• ISBN13: 9781848132399
• ISBN10: 1848132395
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-15
• Publisher: MACMILLAN

Summary

Decentering International Relationsseeks to actively confront, resist, and rewrite International Relations (IR), a heavily politicized field that is deeply centered in the North/West and privileges certain perspectives, pedagogies, and practices. Is it possible to break the chain of signifiers that always leads IR studies back to the US and its European allies? Through engagement with a variety of theories (ranging beyond the usual mainstream versus critical/alternative binary), conversations with scholars, activists, and students, and consultation of IR syllabi and conference proceedings, the authors invite the reader to participate in an accessible yet provocative experiment to decenter the North/West when we learn, study and do IR. In particular, they examine how the pressing issues of human rights, globalization, peace and security, and indigeneity are simultaneously normative inventions meant to sustain particular power structures and sites for insurgent and subversive attempts to live IR at the margins. Selbin and Nayak have written a remarkable and provokative re-envisioning of a globally important subject.

Author Biography

Meghana Nayak is Associate Professor of Political Science and teaches in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Pace University-New York. She has published in International Feminist Journal of Politics, International Studies Review, Women and Politics, and has a chapter in Theorizing Sexual Violence by Renee Heberle and Victoria Grace. Her work focuses on social movements, the politics of gender violence, and feminist and critical approaches to hegemony, security, and identity.

Eric Selbin is Professor and University Scholar at Southwestern University.  His books include Modern Latin American Revolutions; Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: The Power of Story, and he is currently completing Understanding Revolutions with John Foran and Jack Goldstone.  In 2007 he was selected as one of Southwestern University's all-time "Fav Five" Faculty and received an Exemplary Teaching Award in 2001-2002. 

 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Interventions
3. Indigenous Peoples: International Affairs...and Fantasies
4. Human Rights (and Wrongs)
5. Globalisation
6. (In)Security: Paradoxes of Peace and Violence
7. Conclusion