ABSTRACT
Alternative approaches to mainstream international relations are myriad and varied. They are not widely acknowledged as theories per se, if one agrees that a theory is a collection of hypotheses that attempts to explain a phenomenon and is falsifiable and parsimonious. Indeed, the assemblage of international relations (IR) approaches that are normally designated to be within the alternative realm range from positivist critique to post-positivist and can be normative or non-normative. They run the gamut from complementing to outright rejecting the realist/liberal orthodox views. Often such alternative approaches are best considered alongside IR theories, not necessarily as substitutes. Alternative IR assumes that mainstream IR is a “privileged subject to be liberated,” and proposes an epistemologically and ontologically method to emancipate it. 1 Alternative approaches rely heavily on epistemological and ontological methodology. Epistemology involves ways of knowing. Ontological premises feature the nature of the world, conceptions of the world and that which is perceived as existing.
