Description
Why is the international order so often introduced as “in crisis” or “threatened”? Actors around the world – though predominantly in the West – frequently emphasize the current perils facing the international order. In that regard, securitisation theory provides an insightful account of the processes that such discourses put in motion. However, this paper goes beyond it and examines how the discourse of international order is actually about far less global struggles, rather defining one’s role and identity in a given relationship. It thus investigates what the discourse of international order accomplishes for – or against – various actors.
Reflecting on the concept of international order has been a central concern in the field of International Relations. Yet, we still lack a precise understanding of how it works and what it does. Drawing on recent literature on international practices (Adler & Pouliot, 2011) and the conceptualization of international order as a narrative (Homolar & Turner 2024), this paper argues that international order is about identification processes and related relationships that are sustained by some discursive dynamics as well as participate in some. However, this paper distinguishes itself from existing scholarship by arguing that, far from transcendental or even truly international, the discourse of international order is first and foremost about the reproduction of specific identities and their related relationships.
In that perspective, defending the international order is synonymous with upholding the current dominant identifications of the self and the other and therefore reproducing the power relations underpinning them. On the contrary, unsettling the international order means unsettling these dominant identifications and the relationships they sustain. Therefore, playing the insecurity card further entrenches and radicalizes the dominant identifications, as it prompts us to “defend” the international order and thereby (re)assert more forcefully the identification elements at play in that discourse.
