Subject matters: Imperialism and the constitution of International Relations

This article contributes to the critical historical research that has demythologised the ‘noble origins’ of the International Relations discipline (IR) by exposing its imperial, colonial, and racist legacies. Where most critical historiographies have unveiled the centrality of racialised and imperia...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inReview of international studies Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 448 - 470
Main Author Kristensen, Peter Marcus
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2023
Subjects
Academic disciplines
Colonialism
Constitutions
Cooperation
Historical analysis
Imperialism
International cooperation
International relations
Meetings
Ontology
Race
Race relations
Racism
Raw materials
Reading
Teaching
Imperialism
International Studies Conference
Disciplinary History of International Relations
Subject Matter
Racism
Interwar Period
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Summary:This article contributes to the critical historical research that has demythologised the ‘noble origins’ of the International Relations discipline (IR) by exposing its imperial, colonial, and racist legacies. Where most critical historiographies have unveiled the centrality of racialised and imperialist ontologies in individual thinkers and theories, this article traces imperialist origins of international thought by reconstructing its impact on administrative-institutional infrastructures. Specifically, it interrogates the most systematic and institutionalised attempt to define the ‘subject matter’ of IR under the International Studies Conference (ISC) organised by the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) of the League of Nations. Through a parallel reading of the archives from ISC's ‘administrative meetings’ and ‘study meetings’, the article contends that the seemingly academic discussions on the subject matter of IR in the ‘administrative meetings’ were in fact intertwined with the imperialist-colonial politics central to ‘study meetings’. The article thus not only challenges IR's conventional history, but its historical ontologies by revealing how race and empire were central to the constitution of its very subject matter and its early institutionalisation.
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ISSN:0260-2105
1469-9044
DOI:10.1017/S0260210522000420