Invisible on the globe but not in the global

Decolonising IR using small island vistas

Bibliographic Data

ID5789407
AuthorsKristina Hinds (0000-0002-9809-269X, University of the West Indies, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume49
Issue3
Pages368-378
Publication date2023-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of International Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0260-2105 • E-ISSN: 1469-9044
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0260210523000153
OpenAlexW4383262581
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited4

Teaching and studying International Relations (IR) in the Caribbean makes the region's invisibility unmissable. Nevertheless, these locales have significantly influenced the structure of global processes and are also acutely affected by global occurrences. Exposure to the global has led Caribbean scholarship to offer worthwhile insights into world affairs. Thinkers from the region and its diaspora provide noteworthy perspectives about the criticality of the Caribbean in building systems of empire and a world structured around race, class, and gender in ways that mainstream IR approaches may miss. This article takes its starting point as the Caribbean intellectual tradition. Grounding IR scholarship in this neglected, though highly pertinent, thought tradition is one angle from which to decolonise the discipline. The article connects these insights to an appraisal of a nimble strategy that Caribbean states and territories employ to navigate the global. The strategy of developing offshore financial centres (OFCs) can educate us about the functioning of the world if we are willing to think about it as embedded in global processes rather than as a problematic gimmick. In sum, this piece illustrates how using Caribbean thought and examining Caribbean global integration strategies can help to decolonise IR

Diaspora · Globe · Mainstream · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs

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