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Why Race Matters in International Relations
"Race is not a perspective on international relations; it is a central organizing feature of world politics. Anti-Japanese racism and sustained U.S. engagement in World War II, and broader anti-Asian sentiment influenced the and structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. During the Cold War, racism and anti-communism were inextricably in the containment strategy that defined Washington’s approach to Africa, Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. And today race shapes threat perception and responses to violent extremism, and the “war on terror.” Yet mainstream international relations (IR) scholarship denies race as essential to understanding the world, to the cost of the field’s integrity."