Colouring IR, How does race matter? Flashcards
Racism definitions
This is the belief in practise and policy of domination based on the specious concept of race, it is not simply bigotry or prejudice, but beliefs, practises and policies reflective of and supported by institutional power, primarily state power. (Henderson, 2013)
Realist thought - state is the key actor in international systems.
It is a imposition of this attitude as social policy and social practise, it is a system of denial, deformation and destruction of a peoples history, humanity and right to freedom based exclusively or primarily on the specious concept of race (Henderson 2013)
Race
A socially constructed and thoroughly contested concept with reifies categories of people on the basis of who share traits on the basis of phenotype that society has deemed important, for example skin colour and hair type. There is nothing inherent in these characteristics that tell us someone is different to someone else.
Is IR racist
Concepts of Race, Racial hierarchy and conflict received scant attention in IR.
Realism, Liberalism and constructivism are fundamentally based of racist and westernised ideas.
Robert Vitalis
Vitalis calls it a ‘norm without noticing’—a p persistent blindness on the part of IR theorists.
Concepts in IR are profoundly Eurocentric
Erol Henderson
Erol Henderson, focuses on realism and liberalism, positing that both are contingent upon racialized paradigms at their very core.
White supremacy and racial hierarchy are inherent in the concept that defines both theories, Anarchy.
realism, liberalism and constructivism derive
their notions of anarchy from social contract theses that are based on racist ideas
WEB Du Bois
WEB Du Bois identified the problem of the ‘colour line’, however it still remains left out of the IR mainstream.
Du Bois, ‘Interracial relations’ is a better way of describing IR and decolonisation of the 20th century for him was the most important event in IR.
White mans burden
‘White mans burden’ other races seen as inferior and not civilised. Therefore there was a ‘civilising mission’. This rationalisation arguably informed slavery, imperional conquest and colonization.
Kerr
Kerr contributed to An introduction to the study of international relations
‘One of the most fundamental facts in human history’ is that ‘mankind is divided into a graduated scale’ He argued that this meant colonization was necessary.
Social contract theory
IR is based on ideas of state of nature and the social contract, it informs conceptions of anarchy. Our conception of anarchy is derived from social contract theorists such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant.
The hypothetical idea of human interaction and a ‘state of nature’, prior to the creation of society. Just as individuals in the state of nature had been sovereigns and thus were guided by self interest, states now acted in self interest in competition with each other.
Charles Mill and the racial contract
Charles Mills in his book the ‘racial contract’ said that unlike the social contract that presumes a singular homogenous humanity, the racial contract establishes a heterogenous humanity hierarchically arranged and reflecting a racial hierarchy.
Immanuel Kant
Kants values influenced liberalism in IR, Kants conception of the ‘republican peace’ is that stable peace can only come when all nations of the earth are such republics, this informed the democratic peace theory.
So fundamental is the difference between these two races of man, and it appears to be as great in regard to mental capacities
as in colour. He clearly thought blacks were inferior to whites.
‘Talent’ was a essential ingredient for higher moral and rational achievement, talent was unequally distributed across races. He argued that whites occupied the highest position in this order, there is distinct hierarchy here. North Korea, Iraq, are they seen as ‘rational’ and therefore can they have nuclear weapons.
Kants whole ethical and political theory is without a doubt a racist one, but modern mainstream IR theory are silent when it comes to these ideas.
Why do realists never use the Kantian claims as a reason to undermine their thesis.
All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding and ends with reason, there is nothing higher than reason (Kant, 1781)
Distinct hierarchy remains in this idea of reason. People who hold nuclear weapons in North Korea, Iraq are not seen to be rational.
Hobbes
Realism, roots conception of anarchy in Hobbesian view of the state of nature. ‘Nasty, brutish and short’, ‘Warre of all against all’.
Hobbes asserts that there was never such a time or condition like this, however ‘there are many places, where they live so now,’ for example ‘the savage people in many places of America’
Literal state of nature is reserved for non whites, its hypothetical for whites. One assertion for whites and another for non whites.
Race is a racialized field of study
Race is not a ‘perspective’ on IR, it should be a central organizing feature of world politics
NATO as a example, was influenced by anti-Asian sentiment, collective security but ignored Asian states who are also vulnerable to Russian aggression. Choice of who should be protected and who shouldn’t is based on a racialised viewpoint.
‘War on terror’ deeply racialized, deeply Islamophobic and targeting brown Muslims from the global south. Overlooked the rise of the far right and their terrorist activities, largely more significant now than the typical Muslims and terrorism view.
IR and its core concepts as raced
Foundations on which realism, liberalism and constructivism are built on raced and racist intellectual foundations
They are nested in discourses that centre and favour Europe and the west. Eurocentric ideas and imperialist ideas. You have to think about issues from different perspectives, from actors that have been ignored.
Mainstream IR often ignores the role of western interests in the global south, DRC, millions have been killed over many years, extraction of heavy metals by the west, serving the rest has exacerbated this issues. Instability, government does not control it, local militias do and the west benefits from this uncertainty and instability.
These pit ‘developed’ against the ‘undeveloped’, ‘modern’ against the ‘primitive’ and the ‘civilized’ against the ‘uncivilized’. Are some places over developed, damaging environmental practises and inequality.
Their use is racist, and they are used to explain subjugation and exploitation around the globe and implications of the wests role are ignored in mainstream IR.
Democratic peace theory
Democratic peace theory, Democracy to not fight with each other, however it also implies that non democracies will fight with democracies, so the best way to reach peace is everyone to become democracies. Bias again.
Democracies are less likely to go to war then non democracies are, invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Democracies are less likely to go to war with each other.
Yet the historical record shows that democracies have not been less likely to fight wars, particularly if one considers colonial conquests, however what is more than clear is that democracies are more than happy to go to war with non democracies.
UK has fought more wars in the last 100 years than the US and Russia combined. Empirical record shows us that they are inherently violent and more than keen to use violence against racialised populations. Iraq, Afghanistan, media, shown as racialised others.
In regions such as the middle east and North Africa have experienced more internal conflicts than their less democratic peers.
Yet leaders in the west have invoked DPT in order to justify the invasion of less democratic and notably less white countries. Drone programming, wedding parties in Afghanistan, firing of weapons is a cultural practise.
