Review of a Perspective: Subaltern Realism

Abstract

For over two decades, Mohammed Ayoob has been engaged in an intellectual endeavor that aims to give scholars a feasible analytical tool to use in grasping the major determinants of Third World state behavior, the dominant concerns of Third World state elites, and the root causes of conflict in the Third World. While trying to answer questions of war and peace - what outsiders really want from international relations (IR) - Ayoob tries to make the voice of the Third World heard in mainstream IR theory. Ayoob began his theoretical journey by emphasizing the divergence of Third World conditions from those of industrialized core states, and has gone on to criticize mainstream IR theory for excluding the Third World. Ayoob proposes an alternative conceptualization of security with new sets of questions and variables in order to incorporate the Third World into mainstream IR theory. This article reviews Ayoob's perspective from its initial emergence in the early 1980s as a special emphasis on Third World conditions, to its development into the full-fledged perspective of 'Subaltern Realism' in the mid-1990s, in which he emphasizes the inequality in IR theorizing. Criticisms of his 'Subaltern Realism' perspective will be mentioned at the end of the study.