Description
This paper examines the history of the concept of silence in international political theory while also re-examining international political theory via ‘silence’. It first traces the emergence of silence as a political concept in the 18th century through the eventual equation of silence with political and epistemic domination in the 20th century. It then shows how silence, actual and metaphorical, became a concern for international political theory increasingly following the slow decline of the Westphalian political imaginary. Indeed, the paper contends that excising ‘silence’ is a primary concern of both contemporary problem solving (ie. liberal) and critical normative international political theories. After establishing the centrality and ubiquity of silence for international political theory, the paper’s indicates how we can retell the story of disciplinary divisions between idealism and realism and scepticism through the prism of silence.
