Reflection #6: Voices Under the Radar

This week has been the most interesting in regards to world politics, that I’ve had thus far. Our assignments touched on fascinating topics, such as the importance of culture, that are at times overlooked in the context of global politics. As PTJ mentioned in class, many people have the belief that since marginalized groups are smaller, and uneducated about policies, and worldly topics why would we study them? Shouldn’t we be studying the larger, powerful states?

This belief speaks directly towards the ideas and assumptions of state-centralism. If IR theories assume that states are unchanging, and that the actions of states only should be recognized, then yes, these marginalized people are dispensable. This can be justified by arguing that someone must always be at the bottom of the pyramid, so why try to change our system now? Also, social movements that do not directly affect the relationships between states themselves are similarly unimportant. However, this seems extremely naïve considering the countless examples of the power of the people causing serious problems for those who happened to be in charge, and serious changes to our global systems. Three examples of this are the revolution of Americans from the British, the Indians being led by Gandhi completely sans violence, and the more violent catalyst of indigenous rebellion by Che Guevara. These examples are relevant because the behaviors of these people are under the radar, and throughout history the suppressed have discovered various forms of rebellion that are still going on today. The difference is, the threats are growing increasingly dangerous and power struggles are more obvious. As demonstrated by the cyber-terrorism exhibit at the Spy Museum, these threats are less about traditional combat and more about the destruction of the things we depend on the most. If the state is supposedly more powerful, and significant than the people, then why are attacks shifting away from the military, and towards that which would cause chaos among the people?

State-centrism combined with our current global situation makes IR theories seem almost counter-productive. By not adapting to the times, we are being ignorant towards the future of our global systems. In fact, the state centric theory has a difficult time answering many questions about this future. Therefore not paying a sufficient amount of attention to these groups and movements is a crucial mistake, especially when the stakes are so high.