Ongoing debates in the discipline of International Relations highlight the fragmentation of the field. For some, this trend should be reversed, with IR restricted to a core set of concerns and approaches. Others embrace the expanding diversity of the field, looking for new ways to integrate knowledge and insights beyond the ‘West’ or developing research topics that IR has tended to marginalise or ignore, such as aesthetics. This talk aligns with the latter view that an expanding field is to be embraced and looks to the humanities to consider how we might rethink common conceptions and approaches to the study of global politics. Specifically, the focus is on the contribution of New Area Studies within a humanities-based approach.
The talk addresses the core theoretical concerns that lie at the intersection between Area Studies and IR. Though Area Studies began as a key component of imperialist efforts to remake the non-Western world in the image of the West and then to inform neoliberalist and neo-imperialist projects during the Cold War, the field has since evolved to comprehend global politics differently from IR. By questioning how actors discursively constitute areas for specific ends, New Area Studies rejects the ontological basis of IR that is grounded in a state-centric approach. A revitalised area studies can make important contributions to both global politics and policy-making communities, including: a focus on the grassroots, providing critical insights into complex societies and histories, an appreciation for the transmission of ideas through global networks, a concern with the impacts of globalisation, the discursive construction of foreign policies, and an appreciation of area knowledge and philosophy.