The Last Shall Be First, Postcolonialism and Critical Security Studies

A Review of the Literature

Abstract

In contemporary international relations (IR), dominant representations and discourses of global security follow an epistemological consensus that privileges political realism. Following a brief overview of poststructuralism and traditional IR theory, this paper draws upon seminal works central to the development of the literature of postcolonial security studies. This literature review exemplifies how conflicts of liberation and decolonization of the late twentieth century have at times been misconstrued in traditional IR scholarship as proxy conflicts of the Cold War, an assumption that is symptomatic of eurocentrism and political realism. This paper puts the central themes from select seminal works of postcolonial theory into discussion with each other to emphasize that, while theorists diverge in respect to certain normative conclusions, taken together, they contribute to a robust critique of eurocentric scholarship. This paper concludes by suggesting that triangulating poststructural and postcolonial theories with traditional IR scholarship is effective in achieving a holistic critical analysis in relation to security studies.