Postmodernism in International Relations

Abstract

This paper entitled “postmodernism in international relations” examines the epistemological and ontological development of the theory taking into consideration that the term has already constituted an international relations discourse after the second world war in Europe and that recognition and injection of the theory into international relations was done in 1980. The evolution and emergence of postmodernism as a social theory will be discussed, basic assumptions, contributions and criticisms of the postmodernism will be discussed and analyzed. Related academic books and journals on postmodernism will be used as a reference in gathering literature to analyses the concept in a broader meaning. The paper argued that postmodernism in international relations is a radical departure or break away from modernism way of thinking to postmodernism characterized by the new and complex articulation of world conditions and issues within the context of interpretative and internationalized informed by postmodern preoccupations of new philosophy and ideas based on the relative objective reality of human conditions. The paper concluded that postmodernism is a reaction from modernity to post modernity for their inability and failure to interpret world events based on objective reality.