‘IR Theory, I Presume’: an Introduction

Abstract

The aim of this book is to encourage scholars in Southern Africa, particularly those working in the field of international relations, to theorize their region, the discipline and, we believe, their daily lives. As suggested by Wallerstein above, new ‘utopias’ are being visited on the region. This should encourage those interested in Southern Africa to think hard about preferred visions of and for the future. Depending where one stands, the region can look more varied than unified, more divisive than accepting of diversity, more stable than insecure. What is Southern Africa? Is there an objective definition we might aim for? How inclusive is that picture? What future(s) for those ‘inside’, and for those without?

The modern world system is in the process of coming to its end. This is not per se good or bad; it all depends on what will be constructed in its place … [I]ts course is not predetermined … We are in effect being called upon to construct our utopias, not merely to dream about them. Something will be constructed. If we do not participate in the construction, others will determine it for us.

— Immanuel Wallerstein (1996: p. 106)

As we contemplate rewriting IR methods, feminists remember that we cannot be banished for our sins. We are, after all, already among the homeless in the field.

— Christine Sylvester (1994: p. 139)

Before I entered a doctoral program in IR, I had assumed that it was an inter-disciplinary field, and that was part of its attraction to me, having spent a lot of time in various countries … [I]t’s been some disappointment for me to discover the narrowness of the discipline and its failure to be either aware of or appreciative of interdisciplinary scholarship.

— anonymous (cited in Sylvester, 1996: p. 269)