Upholding Hierarchies of Knowledge Production: Mundane Obstacles to Global International Relations

Abstract

Debates about global international relations (IR) have been ongoing for over a decade, yet academic practice in meaningfully cooperating with Global Southern scholars has changed little. Against the backdrop of growing scholarly concerns about global inequality in knowledge production, this forum takes stock of the search for global IR and examines the academic practices and structures that hinder its progress. The contributions highlight numerous obstacles, including structural and material inequalities between researchers and institutions, visible hierarchies in funding, and seemingly mundane issues such as language barriers, stigma, stereotypes, and data ownership. Written by both Global Southern and Global Northern scholars, this forum aims to provide a balanced contribution to the growing debate about what truly global IR scholarship could look like. We argue that the search for global IR is not merely a debate about theoretical and epistemological plurality in the discipline but one with real-world ramifications. Global order at multiple levels is shaped by policies and actions underpinned by various types of data. The data collected, its agents, and the resulting knowledge are foundational components of decision-making in global politics.