Conference Papers — International Studies Association; 2007 Annual Meeting. (Unpublished Manuscript)

Abstract

Much of the literature in international relations theory relies on historical narrative to support a particular theoretical position. For such a strategy to be effective, these historical narratives must be presented as coherent, meaningful, and relevant for the theoretical purposes the author specifies. This paper proposes to read historical narrative in international relations theory through the work of Jacques Derrida, and his concept of the event. In particular, we examine how historical events become meaningful when articulated in the service of particular subjectivities, and how, as events of import, their elevated status affects the marginalization of other events, people, and subjectivities. The point here is greater than the observation that The winners write the history books.
What is at stake in the writing of historical events, we argue, is the production, reproduction, and limitation of particular kinds of thought about the possibilities of continuity and change in international political life. Specifically, in this paper, we look at the example of how the codification of World War I works to erase the role of anarchist thought in the political history of early 20th century Europe in order to support a statist conceptualization of the causes of large-scale war. We consider how of the role of anarchism is written (or written out) in: a) early coverage of WWI; b) contemporary IR analyses of WWI, and; c) Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, in order to explain how the event both creates and marginalizes political subjects, as well as to explore how else these historical subjectivities could be written.