The world is upside down: seeing IR from below
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00471178221128190 |
| Author | J. Ann Tickner |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Review Essay |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00471178221128190
International Relations
2023, Vol. 37(2) 370 –386
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00471178221128190
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The world is upside down:
seeing IR from below
J. Ann Tickner
American University
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, and
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.
Keywords
gender, imperialism, international thinkers, race, women, world order
Introduction
Until recently, the academic discipline of International Relations (IR)1 has been remark-
ably unreflective about its history. Although things have changed over the last 30 years,
IR scholars in the Anglophone world have constructed a narrative that celebrates the
birth of a discipline that emerged out of the ashes of World War I, dedicated to offering
policy prescriptions for a new world order where international institutions would prevent
such a catastrophe from happening again. Following an even more deadly war, self-
named Realists came to the fore, criticizing earlier thinkers for their naivete in imagining
Corresponding author:
J. Ann Tickner, American University, USA.
Email: tickner@usc.edu
1128190IRE0010.1177/00471178221128190International RelationsTickner
research-article2022
Review Essay
Tickner 371
that world order could be preserved by international institutions. Realists prescribed the
prudent deploying of power by the strong as a more ‘realistic’ way to preserve peace. In
the US, post war international thought was subsumed under the rubric of Political
Science, narrowing its focus. Multi-disciplinarity, which had enriched earlier interna-
tional thinking was lost in the US and to a lesser extent in the UK.2
Why should we care about this narrow view of international relations? We know that
there is much more to historical thinking about international thought. Yet this narrow
view is what most IR students in the anglophone world learn about IR’s history if they
learn anything. The problem is that many so trained become the next generation of poli-
cymakers and policymakers draw lessons from their education that have important
implications for the way their states act in the world.3
Recently, revisionist international thinkers have been engaged in rewriting a historical
narrative that is more inclusive of other voices, voices of minorities and women who,
although silenced, had plenty to contribute to international thought. A preoccupation
with race and a fear that colonized peoples would revolt against their imperial masters
was a central concern of early 20th century international scholars, something that has
been completely erased from the conventional historical narrative. In his book, White
World Order, Black Power Politics, Robert Vitalis claims that, in the early 20th century,
international relations meant race relations. Amid fears of race wars, colonial administra-
tion was central to international thought. Vitalis introduces us to the ‘Howard School of
International Relations’, a group of African American scholars associated with Howard
University, a predominantly black university in Washington DC. Howard School schol-
ars focused on race and its crucial role in sustaining empire.4 While the history of empire
has completely disappeared from IR, revisionist scholars are beginning to construct
alternative narratives, rewriting a history that is inclusive of a wider array of thinkers and
subject matters. Yet, most of these revisionist histories have ignored the rich contribu-
tions of women international thinkers who have had much to say about both the theory
and practice of international politics.
By focusing on the writings of some of these talented but forgotten women, these
texts make an important contribution to building a history of international thought that is
ever more inclusive. With new tools and an expansive view of who counts as interna-
tional thinkers, these texts help to construct a broader and more complete picture of
international thought and world politics. They also help to envisage a world order that
might have been different had women and people of color been accorded their rightful
place in the academic, activist, and policy worlds. Using these texts as evidence, I ask
what international relations might have looked like had these voices been included and
accepted as part of the canon.
International thought and practice over most of the last 100 years had largely been the
purview of while elite men. There was an opening in the 1980s when feminist and other
critical voices first entered the discipline. Women scholars began to be recognized but
explicitly feminist voices, at least in the US, have had a harder time gaining acceptance
into the mainstream, except when they work with conventional methodologies.5 Women
of color suffered more. Nevertheless, IR feminisms are flourishing in the Anglophone
world. The recovery of this earlier history is particularly welcome.
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