THE DECOLONIAL TURN: NEW CHALLENGES TO INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS TRADITIONS

Abstract

International Relations emerged as a discipline in the aftermath of World War I to avert destructive events through the systemic study of interstate relations. The mainstream IR reflected Eurocentric discourse that viewed the world from the prism of the western colonial powers. This paper reviews relevant literature to examine the decolonial turn in IR and its challenges to established traditions of the discipline. It is a critical reflection of a scholar from the South trying to understand Eurocentricity in a discipline that claims to be international. The research concludes that the decolonial turn in IR is challenging the basic foundations of the discipline and underscores the need for a change in the parameters of discussion around the principles and assumptions underlying the knowledge production system of the IR discipline.