In this episode, Professor Charlotte Epstein reflects on how postcolonial perspectives reshape the study of norms in international relations, challenging conventional accounts of diffusion, compliance, and legitimacy. The conversation explores colonial inheritances embedded in contemporary normative orders, while examining positionality, experience, and the epistemological stakes of critical scholarship.

Charlotte Epstein

Charlotte Epstein is Professor at Tokyo College, University of Tokyo, where her work examines how language and political power have jointly constituted the modern international order.

Publications:

The power of words in international relations: Birth of an anti-whaling discourse

Who speaks? Discourse, the subject and the study of identity in international politics

Constructivism or the eternal return of universals in International Relations. Why returning to language is vital to prolonging the owl’s flight

The postcolonial perspective: an introduction

Against international relations norms: Postcolonial perspectives

Birth of the state: The place of the body in crafting modern politics

Content

00:00 – Introduction

01:42 – Colonialism and Postcolonialism: Conceptual Clarifications

04:08 – Rationale for Employing Postcolonial Perspectives

07:22 – Postcoloniality as Positionality Beyond Historical Periodisation

12:29 – Studying Norm Diffusion and Compliance Beyond Coercion

22:50 – Why Norms Reveal Colonial Inheritances More Sharply than Concepts

27:53 – From Norms as Practices to Norms as Epistemological Categories

32:25 – Situated Perspectives, Critical Authority, and the Risk of Relativism

35:42 – The Role of Experience in Postcolonial Norm Research

39:26 – Key Sources on the Concept of Experience

43:02 – ‘Norming’ and ‘Re-Norming’ in a Foucauldian Perspective

47:54 – The Ambivalences of Research Success

50:39 – Principal Challenges in Postcolonial Approaches to Norms

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