International Theory and Critique in unusual Places

Abstract

Robert Vitalis has demonstrated that, at the moment of its institutionalization, the ‘international theory’ which constituted the discipline of international relations was a theory of relations among races This chapter examines a specific instance of such international theory that was promoted in Lisbon in the mid-twentieth century. This, named and developed as ‘lusotropicalism’, was a theory of relations among races within the space of the Portuguese empire, and of Portugal's place in the world. While consistent with the dominant Anglo-American international theory in understanding international and social relations as relations among races, this theory proclaimed a condition of race harmony rather than race conflict within the space of the Portuguese empire. The chapter explores how this specific understanding of international relations was contested by anti-colonial critics from Angola, Guinea, Mozambique, Cabo Verde and São Tomé who were students in Lisbon during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. It shows how international relations were articulated in the poetry of the African students.