Revisit International Relations: Knowledge Production, Power and Epistemic Contestation from the Global South

International Relations continues to be shaped by Euro centric knowledge systems, categories, and standards of expertise that universalize specific experiences of world order. De colonial and feminist interventions show that coloniality exists and persists not only in institutions and practices of international politics, but also in knowledge-production systems: who is cited, who is authorized to theorize, which histories count, and what methods are recognized as rigorous. These epistemic hierarchies reproduce gendered and racialized exclusions, marginalizing Indigenous, subaltern, and other segregated identities across the Global South. This issue can't be solved by homogenizing the diversity into the existing canon, rather reconstruct IR concepts themselves. Through the application of Global South epistemology, sovereignty is plural and contested, security exceeds static protection, diplomacy emerges through practices of mediation and translation, and rule making are sties of localization, contestation, and South–South circulation. This Research Topic invites ambitious, grounded contributions that treat knowledge production as constitutive of international relations. The goal of this research topic is to advance an international relations agenda that treats Global South knowledge-production systems not as add-ons to established theory, but as sites from which theory can be reworked, revised, regenerated. It seeks to examine how coloniality of knowledge, and gendered, racialized, and ethnicity based exclusions structure the production, circulation, and validation of international theories. We encourage submissions that revisit central IR concepts—sovereignty, security, diplomacy, norm diffusion, and epistemic communities—through comparative cases across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Central Asia, including South–South relations and North-South relations. The Research Topic issue aims to strengthen theory-building in IR, widen the discipline’s framework of legitimate concepts and methods, and set a forward-looking research agenda on how alternative epistemologies can reshape global order.The Research Topic invites original research articles that advance decolonial and feminist approaches within International Relations by critically engaging with knowledge production systems and Global South epistemologies. It seeks theoretically driven and empirically grounded manuscripts that interrogate how coloniality, gender, race, and other axes of identity and power shape the construction, circulation, and legitimization of knowledge in global politics. Contributions may revisit and reconstruct core IR concepts such as sovereignty, security, diplomacy, and norm diffusion through situated and comparative perspectives from the North-South, and South–South dynamics.The scope of submissions is spread across these four topics.• Conceptual rethinking of IR through decolonial and feminist perspectives;• Sovereignty, Security, and Governance from the Global South countries• Methods of knowledge production as part of theory formation• Rule making, norm diffusion and knowledge communitiesThe issue aims to foster contributions that move beyond critique to actively reconstitute the epistemological and conceptual foundations of International Relations Topic editors: Aritra Chakrabarty, Fisseha Fantahun Tefera Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82467/revisit-international-relations-knowledge-production-power-and-epistemic-contestation-from-the-global-south