Description
Critical international theory is confronted with a fundamental ‘problem of orientation’, whose answer defines its capacity to critically analyse world politics and deal with global challenges. This problem derives from how the capacity for critique is inherently connected with the need to, at least partially, escape time- and space-bound points of view and attain a more cosmopolitan perspective that permits an assessment of the regressive/progressive tendencies of the human past, present and possible futures. The search for this cosmopolitan standpoint of orientation is even more relevant in face of challenges that now assume a global character, ranging from climate change, global pandemics and the need for increasing cross-border cooperation. The search for such a standpoint has, throughout the history of critical international theory, led to a reliance on grand narratives of human development from the perspective of which critical orientation can be disclosed. However, grand narratives themselves have frequently relied on metaphysical categories and stadial conceptions of history that reproduce forms of Eurocentrism that ultimately undermine their adequacy as means of orientation. A fundamental suspicion of grand narratives and need for ‘reflexivity’ that discloses forms of exclusion embedded in theoretical perspectives have thus become common topics in the field. However, this growing concern with reflexivity is also associated with a tendency for greater philosophical abstraction and a growing gap between theory and practice which, ultimately, has compromised the capacity of critical international theory to remain relevant in contemporary world politics. This article considers the role of grand narratives in critical international theory and explores the possibility of post-Eurocentric and post-philosophical grand narratives that provide an alternative answer to the problem of orientation and recover the link between theory and practice. With reference to recent developments in the field, namely the work of Richard Devetak and Andrew Linklater, the article considers the possibility of a historical-sociological approach to grand narratives which, it is argued, is capable of recovering the role of critical international theory as a means of orientation in face of global challenges to human and non-human survival.
