Rethinking thinkers in international relations: the case for global thinkers of the international

Abstract

In this article, we advocate for mainstream International Relations (IR) to acknowledge the agency of 'global thinkers' who have been overlooked or insufficiently engaged with in the discipline. This neglect stems from IR's origins and formalisation that excludes diverse voices in its understanding of international thought. To address this issue, we propose a framework to actively engage with overlooked global thinkers, emphasising linguistic, regional, and gender diversity. Aligning with Global IR's recognition that knowledge is universally produced, this undertaking highlights the intrinsically global nature of international thought. We present a framework that reviews, reframes, and rediscovers the contributions of global thinkers. Taken together, these three steps allow us to 're-think' thinkers in IR, and make a case for their inclusion in the discipline. We structure our analysis into quantitative investigations of IR theory books, which provide an account of the discipline's canonical thinkers and history of thought. This is followed by qualitative discussions on the value of global thinkers, exemplified by the illustrative cases of Andrés Bello and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. By highlighting their underappreciated contributions to topics such as sovereignty, international law, and cosmopolitanism, we advocate for their inclusion - amongst others - within the discipline. This article serves as an introductory intervention, setting the stage for further exploration of global thinkers within IR's disciplinary core.