The world is upside down: seeing IR from below

Abstract

This review essay engages three texts focused on women who engaged with international thought in the early to mid-20th century. Women’s International Thought: A New History and Women’s International Thought: Towards a New Canon, both edited by Patricia Owens and her co-editors. The third, To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism, edited by Keisha Blain and Tiffany Gill. A few women discussed in these texts are recognized today, most are completely forgotten. Some aspired to careers in the academy but encountered obstacles on account of their sex and/or race. Many were scholar activists who claimed that their writings should address real world problems. These texts foreground the work of African American scholars, focused on racism and imperialism, subjects that IR ignores. Since some were denied publication outlets many wrote journals and published in newspapers. Although previously ignored, all these women had important things to tell us about international relations.

The What, Who and Where of World Politics? Two Different Conceptions of ‘the International’

“…Security and development issues in the Third World were still examined as regards "perceived threats to the north such as terrorism, migration, human trafficking. " 16 Second, these scholars have questioned the "correspondence between standard IR terminology, categories and theories, and third world realities" 17 and suggest the necessity for rethinking them. 18 Since the selected scholars did not openly discuss how they conceive 'the international,' we aim to tease out their conceptions from their writings.…”