Coloring the Lines through Culture? Race and Racialization in International Relations

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the ways in which racial constructs processes of racialization operate in international politics and become consequential in constituting the contemporary global order. Specifically it asks: in the wake of the diffusion of domestic and international norms against racism, how are we to understand race and effects of racialization at the level of the international? In order to answer this question, I develop a theoretical framework of racialization that explains how human groups, including cultural and religious groups, are (re)defined as discrete entities with inherent dispositions and ordered hierarchically as to shape the actions and identities available for various actors. Although explicit racial hierarchies in inter-state politics became less prominent with decolonization and through international norms against racism, I argue that racialization continues to constitute domestic and global hierarchies through structural and productive power relations. As can be seen in racialization of Muslims and the debates about the rise of China, expressions of cultural difference and their association with various forms and objects of threat are a consequential medium through which racialization occurs in the contemporary global order.