Discourse in International Relations

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Discourse in International Relations A discourse, put simply, is the concepts of critical thinking in order to further develop a theory through debate or dialogue. Discourse began as a study in sociological and linguistic fields, and eventually crossed into the political sphere. The aim to develop social language has evolved into a legitimate way of theorizing in the study of International Relations. Discourse is present in International relations in the forms of critical theory, postmodernists, feminists, and social constructivists, however the setback in discourse is that there is no prominent understanding on how to study discourse. Scholars use discourse to challenge theories based in science and scientific methodologies. This paper will examine the evolution of discourse and how it has grown to be a key concept in furthering the development of understanding our International community. The concept of discourse emerged with linguists attempting to analyze structural sentences and using canonical forms in order to do so.[i] It was highly used in analyzing translations, one of the first being James A. Lauriault/Loriot attempting to translate Quechua and using discourse analysis based on Zellig Harris’s theory for accuracy.[ii] He used it to translate other languages and went on to begin teaching the theory to others. The concept of discourse analysis began being applied to computer-based programs for sublanguages[iii] and eventually began to be adapted by social and human sciences. Michel Foucault is a prominent actor in discourse analysis theory in Europe and has a significant impact of the perception of discourse applied today. In Foucault’s writings in ‘The Archaeology of Knowledge.” In these writings he focuses on the unity of discourses and more specifically, a particular part of discourse—the statement. He deems it as the smallest

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