International Hierarchies

In recent years, scholars of international relations have paid increasing attention to the roles and nature of hierarchies in global politics – there is even talk of a “hierarchy turn” in IR, characterized by a heightened interest in international hierarchies. The turn towards hierarchies in order to understand global politics in many ways represents a rejection of earlier approaches that focused on the absence of forms of political rule (i.e. anarchy) as being the constitutive feature of the international system. Scholars from such diverse academic backgrounds as rationalism, postcolonialism, feminism, Marxism, post-structuralism, and critical theory have all rejected the so-called “anarchy problematique”. While the reasons for their specific critiques are as varied as the core assumptions of these distinctive approaches, they share an interest in hierarchy, i.e. how the international system is structured to place some states, groups, and/or identities in positions of superiority over other states, groups and/or identities. To that end, we invite papers that explore how global politics is structured in ways that create relations of hierarchy, stratification or rank. The Section organizers welcome papers from any theoretical approach or subfield so long as the Papers attend to questions of international hierarchy. Potential questions that Papers could address include (but are not limited to): • In a complex world of multiple hierarchies, what are the relations between them? (This question could/should be contextualized and made concrete). • Are some hierarchies more foundational than others? Are intersecting hierarchies of equal “weight,” or are some hierarchies perhaps at the root of other hierarchies? • How does growing economic inequality help produce and perhaps accelerate hierarchical global practices? • If, as post-structuralists claim, the world is in flux, then what are the implications for how hierarchy should be conceptualized and addressed? • How temporally durable must a hierarchical practice or process be in order to be understood as "a hierarchy"? • How localized (spatially unique) are hierarchical practices that are of importance to IR? Our Section would consist of four thematically linked Panels. 1. Identity and International Hierarchy. The first Panel would focus on how different identities (e.g. gender/race/class/nationality) are structured hierarchically and how different international entities are ranked through categories of identity. For instance, in what ways might gender serve to hierarchically order states? How do various identity dimensions intersect in international hierarchy? 2. Economic Materiality and International Hierarchy. A second panel would focus on the material economic dimensions of global hierarchies. How does global capitalism produce and re-produce hierarchies of various kinds through factors such as market distribution of resources, economic exploitation and struggles between labour and capital? In what ways do material economic forces intersect with or help produce hierarchies of (for example) gender, race, nationality? 3. Conceptions of Power and International Hierarchy. The third Panel will focus on the implications of different conceptions of power for how hierarchies are addressed and understood. For instance, what are the implications of post-structural notions of power as productive, diffuse and in flux for conceptions of hierarchy? What kinds of hierarchy are implicated in the recent turn to study the status-seeking behavior of states? Jonathan Havercroft, Associate Professor, Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton, GBR Dr. Havercroft’s research focuses on the changing nature of sovereignty in global politics. He is the author of Captives of Sovereignty (Cambridge University Press, 2011) as well as numerous articles and book chapters that explore how sovereignty relates to such diverse political phenomena such as the technological transformation of warfare, the rights of indigenous peoples, and global norms of non-intervention. Sovereignty, conventionally defined as the supreme authority within a political community, is an essentially hierarchical concept. As such questions about the changing nature of sovereignty in international relations are implicitly questions about international hierarchies. Ann Towns, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Dr. Towns’ work focuses on the intersection of gender and international hierarchy. She is the author of Women and States: Norms and Hierarchies in International Society (Cambridge University Press, 2010) as well as a number of articles and book chapters on how the status of women functions to hierarchically order states. She is currently completing a manuscript on the relation between norms and international hierarchies. She is also starting up a large research project on gender and diplomatic practice, focusing on the hierarchies of gender in diplomacy.