Conclusion

Chapter 6 highlights one issue that the book has not addressed, namely the structural barriers to thinking globally about world politics. In particular, it emphasises the issue of English as the hegemonic language of IR and also the Anglo-Saxon intellectual style. Without dismissing the constraints inhibiting non-English speakers or those not sufficiently proficient in English or the Anglo-Saxon style to publish in English-speaking outlets, we note another issue. This is the marginalisation experienced by those who do write and publish in English but whose work is not read by their peers for a variety of reasons. Regarding the latter, the chapter asks whether this represents an often overlooked problem, namely the failure of IR scholars to engage with fellow scholars as coeval thinkers—even as they write and publish in English.