This course provides an advanced exploration of selected IR theoretical perspectives through the critical lens of language and discourse. Moving beyond materialist and purely strategic models of world politics, it investigates how perceived realities of international politics, such as power, security, legitimacy and identity, are constructed, contested and sustained through linguistic practices.
The intellectual journey begins with key concepts of power, security, norm and legitimacy, focusing on how these are (re)produced through discursive acts. It then examines the specific mechanisms of linguistic politics: from communicative action, strategic action, rhetorical coercion to (strategic) narrative and framing, and finally, to the defensive and identity-forming practices of blame avoidance and othering.
By the course’s conclusion, students will possess a sophisticated conceptual toolkit to critically analyze the linguistic aspects of IR, understanding language not as a passive mirror of events but as a primary medium through which world politics are enacted, changed and contested.
- Teacher: haiyang, Yang Hai