Decolonising Norms in IR - Charlotte Epstein | Ep. 1 (2026)
The IR thinker · Martin Zubko
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Show Notes
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
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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