Description
This paper interrogates the concepts of ‘nature’ and the fundamental work it does in IR theory. First, the paper highlights uses of the term to denote something inevitable – from the importance of an unchanging ‘human nature’ in classical realist thought to commercial exchange as ‘natural’ in liberal theorizing. In both instances, nature signifies a perennial force beyond human control. Second, the paper examines the use of ‘nature’ as a foil to international society and processes of socialization. Here, an imagined natural state predates society, and in many ways, socialization seeks to change what has been ‘pre-given’ by nature. Third, this paper investigates the use of the verb ‘to denature’ in critical IR to challenge a static understanding of the world. Critical scholars aim to historicize and contextualize concepts and categories to show they are not inherent, but were created by someone for some purpose, and therefore can be reimagined and recreated going forward. While this use of ‘nature’ posits it as a myth that must be overturned, it also reinforces an understanding of nature as unchanging and hence a false reflection of the social world. By thinking through these three interrelated ways ‘nature’ is used in IR theory, I show how much work the nature vs. society binary does in the way we seek to understand the international.