Mainstream International Relations and the Role of Racism

Core Thesis on Race and International Relations

• Mainstream International Relations (IR) ignores the central role of race and colonialism in world affairs, which prevents an accurate understanding of the modern state system.
• The discipline is accused of being dishonest about its ideological and geographic origins, having erased non-Western history and thought from its canon.
• IR has failed to address how colonialism and decolonization were fundamental to creating the contemporary international order.

Context of the Academic Reckoning

• Worldwide protests against police racism, brutality, and white supremacist monuments have forced a global confrontation with systemic racism and historical inequalities.
• The authors argue that a similar reckoning is long overdue within the academic discipline of IR to address its historical legacies.

Article and Authorship Metadata

• Title: "Why Is Mainstream International Relations Blind to Racism?"
• Publication Date: JULY 3, 2020.
• Authors: Gurminder K. Bhambra, Yolande Bouka, Randolph B. Persaud, Olivia U. Rutazibwa, Vineet Thakur, Duncan Bell, Karen Smith, Toni Haastrup, and Seifudein Adem.
• Publisher: Foreign Policy (a division of Graham Holdings Company).