Politics and International Affairs

A central problem for practices of reflexivity consists in meaningfully and thoroughly challenging individual and collective perspectives. In the field of International Relations (IR), reflexivity has thus often been conceived as a kind of diversification or pluralizing, if not also decentering, of dominant theories and ways of knowing. Yet, if some scholars who engage in sociologies of knowledge are correct that beliefs and practices can only be challenged from outside the (Western) field of IR, the prospect of seeking to understand and theorize world politics self-reflexively is grim indeed, let alone the promise of theorizing practices of ethics for global politics. While not disagreeing with the potential of scholars from the ‘periphery’ to transform IR, this article argues that the concept of marginality most satisfactorily captures the potential and the potency of the resources available for a reflexive IR, a possibility that becomes apparent with the rejection of a simple social, political or institutional division between insider and outsider. This article advances this project with the exemplar of attitudes and metaphors from queer thought and practice that, in alliance with postcolonial approaches emphasizing multiple worlds and subaltern agencies, can critique, perform and produce alternative ethico-political practices of world politics. While unfamiliar or uncomfortable to many IR theorists, deviance, marginality and melancholy as a reflexive ethos can facilitate surprising, intriguing and even hopeful possibilities for thinking and doing world politics. A queer/IR encounter generates novel readings of the subjects, sentiments, temporalities, spaces and ethics of politics.

Considering a recent ‘temporal turn’ in International Relations (IR) scholarship, this article seeks to make a significant contribution by proposing that space and time be considered as concepts that ‘thicken’ one another in several ways. In the discourse of security and governance, for example, frames of time and space work together to facilitate and legitimize certain policies, actions, and reactions, and they also imply distinct perspectives on ethics in world politics. Drawing on the examples of United States (US) drone use, reactions to the event that has become known as ‘Benghazi’, and fears of the global spread of disease, this study investigates how temporal and spatial framings conceptualize effective and ethical security and governance. Arguing that space-time frames take shape from the resonance of political, theoretical and cultural texts, four frames are elaborated including ‘space-time liberations’, ‘space-time oppressions’, ‘space-time strategics’, and ‘space-time reflexivities’. The article concludes by suggesting that contradictions and tensions between the frames along with postcolonial and decolonial perspectives can be leveraged to interrogate and displace dominant notions of pace and space in the practice and study of security and governance.

Considering a recent ‘temporal turn’ in International Relations (IR) scholarship, this article seeks to make a significant contribution by proposing that space and time be considered as concepts that ‘thicken’ one another in several ways. In the discourse of security and governance, for example, frames of time and space work together to facilitate and legitimize certain policies, actions, and reactions, and they also imply distinct perspectives on ethics in world politics. Drawing on the examples of United States (US) drone use, reactions to the event that has become known as ‘Benghazi’, and fears of the global spread of disease, this study investigates how temporal and spatial framings conceptualize effective and ethical security and governance. Arguing that space-time frames take shape from the resonance of political, theoretical and cultural texts, four frames are elaborated including ‘space-time liberations’, ‘space-time oppressions’, ‘space-time strategics’, and ‘space-time reflexivities’. The article concludes by suggesting that contradictions and tensions between the frames along with postcolonial and decolonial perspectives can be leveraged to interrogate and displace dominant notions of pace and space in the practice and study of security and governance.

In this paper I turn to Foucault’s essays and lectures on ‘technologies of the self’ and ‘self writing’ along with how Foucault situated his own ‘self’ in his writing to explore a particular tension in autoethnography and autobiography in International Relations—that between transparency and opacity. In doing so, I review some possible benefits of the narrative form as a means of self-reflexivity and explore the relationship between writer and reader. If complexity is one such benefit, how does the narrative form enact or portray complexity? Is complexity at odds with the impulse and the expectation that self-writing somehow reveals the self?

We often hear and read about the various ways in which China can help African countries develop, about how Africans should learn this lesson or the other from China, and about how China’s interests in Africa in the early 2000s have made Africa become more visible as an international market and a trade partner. We do not, however, hear or read enough about the ways in which Africa reciprocally provides opportunities for China (other than natural resource supplies), about how trading (multilaterally and bilaterally) with African countries helps China gain much-needed experience in global economic development, or about how cooperation platforms between China and African states have provided much needed feedback for China to adjust and readjust its conduct according to different contexts. Trading with African countries opens up many unique opportunities for China that remain underexplored in the extant literature. This article seeks to rectify this mainly by focusing on what China learns about global governance from its experience implementing trade and investment projects across Africa.

Abstract: There is a growing body of scholarship that examines China's security engagement in Africa. However, such scholarship largely views security cooperation in terms of military aid and military equipment and considers security from a traditional perspective. This article proposes to expand the scope of security to include non-traditional aspects of cooperation such as capacity building programs and investments in human resource development. Going beyond the view that security should be understood in terms of military hardware and naval bases, I propose a security-development nexus as a framework to understand China's security practices in Africa. This nexus highlights the integration of security and development and views peace and conflict resolution to be the result of successful economic development. The core argument is that central to Beijing's security strategy in Africa are not only arms sales, deployment of combat troops, or establishment of military bases, but that equally vital are investments in human resource development through capacity building programs. The article closes with a critical analysis of the development-security nexus by highlighting its major shortcomings and unintended consequences. As China's experience in the South-Sudan indicates, over-relying on economic development as a broker for peace has its own challenges and limitations.

How is Chinese foreign policy building a positive image of China in Africa? IR literature on soft power and attractiveness abounds. This study builds on the existing works, especially contributions by Janice Bially Mattern and Ty Solomon, to account for the role of expert knowledge production in attractiveness and image-building. While the existing literature focuses on China's media cooperation from the perspective of establishing Chinese media outlets in Africa, this article identifies an understudied aspect of China's strategy in Africa—that of investing in human resource development and professional training programmes for African journalists. The study constructs its analysis based on a series of in-depth interviews and official document analysis. The findings suggest that Chinese-sponsored professional development programmes for African journalists are an opportunity for African trainees to be socialised in Chinese values, norms, and expert knowledge. These trainings contribute to build a positive image of China in Africa and are far more successful than material approaches including establishing Chinese media outlets across Africa. Keywords Africa Á China Á knowledge–power nexus Á soft power

The Global South is generally understood to refer to less economically developed countries. It is a broad term that comprises a variety of states with diverse levels of economic, cultural, and political influence in the international order. Although International Relations is an interdisciplinary field of study, it has historically been studied from a very Eurocentric perspective that does not always help us to understand developments occurring in  the  Global  South. Understanding Global South perspectives starts with a discussion of the Western-centric focus of mainstream IR theories. It also recognises the challenges facing scholars from the Global South that might help to explain why Global South perspectives are largely absent from mainstream debates. The ultimate goal is to broaden the field of view within IR theory to incorporate a more just and representative understanding of international relations.

What does the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) tell us about China’s perceptions of the international order? This paper takes an inductive
approach by examining the BRI for a two-pronged purpose: first, to
understand China’s perception of the international order by examining
Beijing’s official discourse around its intentions and vision for the initiative;
and, second, to examine the mechanisms through which Chinese norms are diffused and normalised in Global South states. I find that Chinese policy navigates a dialectical interchange between upholding the existing international order while simultaneously promoting alternative norms and practices to reform parts of the order that are unsatisfactory to Chinese interests. To answer the second part of the puzzle, the paper finds that a central socialisation mechanism in China’s foreign policy for Global South states occurs through professionalisation training programmes. These programmes allow for Chinese expert knowledge and technical know-how to be shared with and mimicked by elites and civil servants across many Global South states.