ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a scholars of international relations share responsibility for this epistemic violence insofar as they tend to simplify complex global structures and problems. When the Cold War came to an end, it seemed as though Africa's international relevance would decline dramatically. Arguably, the "truth" of national identity transcends the world of the particular insofar as it postulates a metaphysical dimension according to which only collectives are real. National identity is potentially totalitarian and reductionist because it demands that all other aspects of identity be subordinated to the overriding issue of establishing and/or securing national unity. The aim of this international epistemic process of securitization is to transcend the potential instability of individual nations that may ultimately have implications on a global scale. Violence in international relations can be understood in terms of its epistemic dimension, its ontological dimension, and its civilizing dimension.
