Alternative Theories of IR

Feminism in IR - General Framework

• Proposed by Butler and Mohanty

• An approach that examines how gender as a social construct shapes global politics and power.

• Gender is socially constructed and performed.

• IR is built on masculine norms. Women’s roles and experiences are systematically invisibilized.

• Gendered violence is normalized in global political/economic systems.

• It reveals hidden power structures and biases in mainstream IR.

Types of Feminism in IR

• Liberal feminism: equal rights & access

• Marxist feminism: capitalism as source of women’s oppression

• Postmodern feminism: rejects universal claims; critiques Western bias and essentialism

Enloe’s “Bananas, Beaches, and Bases”

• Women as plantation workers, soldiers’ wives, sex workers, tourism laborers.

• Feminized imagery to market Global South tourism.

• Military and global economy built on gendered exploitation.

• Makes women’s invisible contributions central to IR analysis.

Feminist Critique of the State

• Draws from theories by Machiavelli, Hobbes.

• State=masculine protector; people=feminized dependents

• “Weak” states feminized and treated as subordinate.

• Security and power framed through masculinity.

Postcolonialism in IR - General Framework

• Proposed by Young & Chakravarty

• Colonial past shapes modern global inequalities

• IR is Eurocentric and must be decentered.

• Focus on “colonality” (ongoing structures of power)

• Explains global hierarchies through history and race

Orientalism

• Proposed by Said

• The West constructs the “East” as exotic, inferior, and opposite to itself.

• Knowledge=power; academic study reinforces domination,

• “Othering” legitimizes colonial and interventionist practices.

• Eastern identity becomes framed through western imagination.

Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth”

• Colonialism is fundamentally violent and racist theory in practice.

• Europe claims universal rights but denies them to colonized peoples.

• Race + economic hierarchy codepend (“rich b/c white’”)

• Colonial violence shapes psychology, society, and politics.

Colonial Legacies in Contemporary Wars

• Proposed by Ringmar

• Modern Western wars repeat colonial patterns.

• War on Terror mirrors colonial division of “civilized v. uncivilized.”

• Extraordinary/illegal measures have historical precedent.

• Western powers treat non-liberal peoples through colonial logic.

Decolonizing IR

• Propose by Sabaratnam

• Strategies for dismantling Eurocentric structures in IR

• Expose Orientalist assumptions

• Challenge Eurocentric historical narratives

• Recover erased knowledge and subaltern agency

• Reimagine the subjects of world politics

Intersectionality

• Proposed by Crenshaw

• Identities overlap (gender, race, class) to create unique forms of inequality

• IR cannot be understood through a single identity lens

• Gendered + racialized + economic oppression are interconnecte