Western dominance in international relations?: the internationalisation of IR in Brazil and India

221 Pages·2019·3.399 MB·English

by  Alejandro, Audrey

Western Dominance in International
Relations?
Since the 1970s, a ‘critical’ movement has been developing in the humanities
and social sciences denouncing the existence of ‘Western dominance’ over the
worldwide production and circulation of knowledge. However, thirty years after
the emergence of this promising agenda in International Relations (IR), this dis-
cipline has not experienced a major shift.
This volume offers a counter- intuitive and original contribution to the under-
standing of the global circulation of knowledge. In contrast to the literature, it
argues that the internationalisation of social sciences in the designated ‘Global
South’ is not conditioned by the existence of a presumably ‘Western domi-
nance’. Indeed, although discriminative practices such as Eurocentrism and gate-
keeping exist, their existence does not lead to a unipolar structuration of IR
internationalisation around ‘the West’. Based on these empirical results, this
book reflexively questions the role of critique in the (re)production of the social
and political order. Paradoxically, the anti- Eurocentric critical discourses repro-
duce the very Eurocentrism they criticise. This book offers methodological
support to address this paradox by demonstrating how one can use discourse
analysis and reflexivity to produce innovative results and decentre oneself from
the vision of the world one has been socialised into.
This work offers an insightful contribution to International Relations, Polit-
ical Theory, Sociology and Qualitative Methodology. It will be useful to all stu-
dents and scholars interested in critical theories, international political sociology,
social sciences in Brazil and India, knowledge and discourse, Eurocentrism, as
well as the future of reflexivity.
Audrey Alejandro is Assistant Professor at the Department of Methodology,
London School of Economics and Political Science.
Worlding Beyond the West
Series Editors:
Arlene B. Tickner
Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
David Blaney
Macalester College, USA
and
Inanna Hamati-A taya
Aberystwyth University, UK
Historically, the International Relations (IR) discipline has established its bound-
aries, issues, and theories based upon Western experience and traditions of
thought. This series explores the role of geocultural factors, institutions and
academic practices in creating the concepts, epistemologies and methodologies
through which IR knowledge is produced. This entails identifying alternatives
for thinking about the ‘international’ that are more in tune with local concerns
and traditions outside the West. But it also implies provincialising Western IR
and empirically studying the practice of producing IR knowledge at multiple
sites within the so-c alled ‘West’.
11 International Institutions in World History
Divorcing International Relations Theory from the State and Stage Models
Laust Schouenborg
12 Fairy Tales and International Relations
A Folklorist Reading of IR Textbooks
Kathryn Starnes
13 Against International Relations Norms
Postcolonial Perspectives
Edited by Charlotte Epstein
14 Assembling Exclusive Expertise
Knowledge, Ignorance and Conflict Resolution in the Global South
Edited by Anna Leander and Ole Wæver
15 Widening the World of International Relations
Homegrown Theorizing
Edited by Ersel Aydınlı and Gonca Biltekin
16 Western Dominance in International Relations?
The Internationalisation of IR in Brazil and India
Audrey Alejandro
Western Dominance in
International Relations?
The Internationalisation of IR in
Brazil and India
Audrey Alejandro
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Audrey Alejandro
The right of Audrey Alejandro to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-04798-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-17048-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
To transformation
‘Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu’une tête bien pleine.’
Michel de Montaigne
Contents
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
List of abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 Diversity 24
2 Regarding internationalisation 51
3 The non- role of ‘the West’ 77
4 The national and the international 105
5 Discursive entanglements 137
6 The recursive paradox 168
Conclusion 196
Index 205
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Representativeness of topics in IR articles published abroad
(UnB, PUC- Rio, USP, 1979–2016) 35
2.1 Geographical distribution of Brazilian articles published
abroad (1979–2016) 56
2.2 Linguistic distribution of Brazilian articles published abroad
(1979–2016) 58
4.1 Responses to the question ‘The discipline of International
Relations is a Western dominated discipline’ (TRIP survey
2014) 122
6.1 Optimal state of knowledge exchange 178
Table
3.1 Career advancement scheme – examples of UGC regulations
for promotion (2010) 93
Acknowledgements
This research raised many challenges. One of them is the social resistances that
came forward as a result of denaturalising the common sense. I would like to
start this book by thanking all the people whose open-m indedness and commit-
ment to innovation enabled me to safely navigate academia’s troubled waters
during the formative years of my career.
Most of this research has been developed during my doctoral years at Sci-
ences Po Bordeaux, and I could not have produced this book without the finan-
cial support of this institution. My gratitude goes first to Daniel Compagnon,
who trusted me and agreed to supervise my doctoral research. I would also like
to thank my students there, whose critical curiosity showed me the need to
develop methodological and pedagogical tools for reflexivity.
I wrote this book while working at the Department of Methodology at the
London School of Economics and at the School of Politics and International
Relations at Queen Mary University of London. In both institutions I benefited
from great mentorship and my colleagues performed unto me the academic
persona I currently identify with, both as a Discourse Analyst and as an Inter-
national Political Sociology scholar. I am particularly grateful to Jef Huysmans’
irreplaceable support for the latter.
I am also indebted to Ellie Knott, Inanna Hamati-A taya, Frédéric Ramel, John
Hobson, Kimberley Hutchings, Antoine Louette, Katarzyna Kaczmarska, Pascal
Ragouet, Nicolas Adell and Xavier Guillaume for their precious feedback on
previous versions of this work. Thanks are also due to the editors of the book
series for providing such an intellectual space in International Relations.
My special thanks go to all the interviewees without whom I would not have
been able to conduct this research. They agreed to share their story even though
we belong to the same professional field and I am eternally grateful for that. I
apologise in advance for the simplifications of the situations in Brazil and India
that I made to make the book more readable for a larger audience.