In answering this question, I take point of departure from varied sites within the discipline to reimagine what IR is and does as a discipline that was established as a scholarly defense for colonialism. Herein I propose that decolonization would need to entail the dismantling of the discipline’s colonial epistemological roots, the rethinking of its core concepts and the fore-fronting of geographies, peoples, and perspectives that were underrepresented in a colonial discipline.
![](https://cienciassociales.uniandes.edu.co/posgrados/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/5941-decolonizing-to-reimaginepr.jpg)
Somdeep Sen
Associate Professor in International Development Studies
Roskilde University