"The disappearance of the human subject in international relations"

Abstract

This paper analyzes the question of the human subject within the field of International Relations and the impact of its ‘disappearance’ from recent literature. This paper hosts discussions around the shift in IR research towards a more popular methodology orientated on quantitated/statistical and impassive presentation of information. This shift is critiqued as being a negative change to the field and this paper explores the implications that this shift has and will continue to have on both International Relations as a school of thought and practice broadly in global politics. In utilizing the two theoretical frameworks of Statistical Numbness and Butler’s Comprehension of Life Model this paper presents a detailed analysis of how this disappearance has taken place and how the identified negative events/outcomes are in fact directly related. This paper draws on works and discourse from thinkers within IR and the broader Social Sciences to present an argument that motivates for the anthropomorphizing of future work within the field.