Middle East and Northern Africa: Morocco “Lessons from Morocco and Brazil in Teaching IR Theory Outside the West”

Teaching International Relations (IR) Theory outside of the West comes with challenges: on the one hand, many students have legitimate career objectives within governmental institutions or international organizations and are interested in what so-called mainstream IR has to say about the discipline. But many others are interested in a critical perspective, and the postcolonial and decolonial perspective has garnered increasing enthusiasm and support among students. In this chapter, I reflect on the challenge of dealing with these seemingly paradoxical expectations through my experience in teaching IR theory in both Morocco and Brazil. I do so by presenting some of the strategies I adopted throughout the years and how I adapted them to specific circumstances and challenges.