Getting to Global IR: Insights from Critical Arctic Studies

Útdráttur

Since its introduction in the presidential address of the International Studies Association’s annual convention in 2014, Global IR has captured a great deal of scholarly attention. While Global IR’s aim – namely, to make the discipline of IR more inclusive and more reflective of its “multiple and diverse foundations” (Acharya 2014, 1) – was generally welcomed as a desirable and necessary development, academics have debated its contributions, critiqued its underlying assumptions, and discussed methods for achieving it for more than a decade. In this article, it is argued that insights from the emerging subfield of Critical Arctic Studies (CAS) can usefully contribute to Global IR by helping to achieve its aim, and in part, addressing its critics. The paper proceeds with a discussion mapping the evolution of Global IR and critical responses to it, before turning to CAS’ profile. The paper then analyses the connections and disconnections between CAS and Global IR, demonstrating what knowledge and approaches produced from a CAS perspective add in Global IR context. The article concludes with some final observations on CAS, the ‘how’ of Global IR and its implications for the future of international studies.