ABSTRACT
This chapter advocates for a prefigurative international relations (IR) theory which, like prefigurative politics, would reflect in our ways of doing theory today the hope and vision for a more just and peaceful future. Carl Boggs defines prefigurative politics as "the embodiment, within the ongoing practice of a movement, of those forms of social relations, decision-making, culture, and human experience that are the ultimate goal". Prefiguration in IR is all more needed "precisely because it has become impossible to rely upon teleology" or explain our commitment to emancipation with ontological or pre-political justifications. Prefigurative theory opens up spaces for alternative ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies for IR, unbound by strictures of conventions and disciplinary power. The chapter describes some contributions of feminist peace activists to prefigurative IR theory along ontological, epistemological, and methodological dimensions by using examples drawn from the history of the longest-operating international women's peace organization: the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
