The Potential and Pitfalls of Retrieving Pluralism in IR: "Global IR", Indigenous Knowledge, and Decolonial Approaches to Statehood, Sovereignty, and Conflict

Abstract

International Relations has been increasingly dissected as a discipline with Western and imperial roots. As such, it has been criticised for not reflecting voices, epistemologies, experiences, and understandings of the international and its central tenets other than those emanating from the Empire’s heart (i.e. Europe and the Anglosphere). The notion of "Global IR" has emerged as a response to this problem that nonetheless aims to avoid a binary "West/Rest" divide and facilitate the articulation of a common ground in IR scholarship. In doing so, however, the maxims of "Global IR" have also been critiqued for reifying an epistemological universalism that foregoes genuine pluralism and decontextualises particular (non-Western) IR theories, methods, and knowledge. Especially in relation to core IR concepts like statehood, sovereignty, and conflict, debate remains over the extent to which "Global IR" can help to de-escalate the marginalisation of non-Western/indigenous voices and ideas. This panel, therefore, aims to better understand the intellectual place of non-Western and indigenous approaches to statehood and sovereignty within the "Global IR" debate. It thus strives to shed further light on the ways in which indigenous, decolonial, and non-Western practices, concepts, and theories of statehood, sovereignty, and conflict may – or may not – intersect with traditional/Western ones. Looking to bring together authors from non-Western and Western contexts, this panel hopes to discuss and embody the potential – but crucially, also the pitfalls – of "Global IR" when it comes to statehood, sovereignty, and conflict ‘after’ (Western) Empire.

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