Introduction

Critical approaches are central to a flourishing study of international relations. They produce arguably the most exciting and challenging contemporary research, and provide crucial insights to scholars and students alike seeking to think through and in, and even move beyond, the current global conjuncture. In a 1986 article regularly cited in discussions of critical approaches and their origins, Robert Cox draws a distinction between ‘problem-solving’ and ‘critical’ theory. According to Cox, whilst the former operates within the prevailing assumptions – and inevitably ends up supporting the status quo, the latter tackles those very assumptions and lays out the possibility of change. Otherness has long been a key topic of concern in international relations scholarship. Assumptions about space and time have been closely examined in critical international relations. Although there may be little consensus among the various scholars represented here as to how to go about critique, there is a unity of purpose that connects their diverse approaches.