IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indqtr/v80y2024i1p164-174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Critical Annotations on Historical Documents: Methodological Possibilities for International Relations Research

Author

Listed:
  • Madhura Balasubramaniam

    (Madhura Balasubramaniam is a PhD student at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras. She co-curates Tibetscapes, a research blog on Tibet and the Himalayas. Her research interests include Indian state-making at its Himalayan borderlands and Tibetan rehabilitation.)

Abstract

This process note explicates the methodological intervention of maintaining fieldnotes on government documents and its significance for historically situated international relations (IR) research. For the most part, IR scholarship treats archival documents as the neutral preserve of the state, representing its coherent national interests. Building on discussions around critical methods within IR, I argue that there is a need to reflexively engage with the writing and curating practices of the state. This process note deploys the ethnographic hallmark of thick description within IR research through critical annotations on archival documents and other government publications on India’s eastern Himalayan borderlands between 1880 and 1965. These annotations encourage a granular reading of government documents and situate them within a larger context of their production, reception, archival memorialisation and subsequent access. I propose that critical annotations help us move beyond post-hoc analyses of foreign policy in terms of success and failure. Instead, in viewing IR theorising as ‘unfinished dictionaries of the international’, I argue that critical annotations challenge a unitary view of the state and facilitate a more nuanced analysis of foreign policymaking emphasising historical contingencies within which policies are articulated and enacted.

Suggested Citation

  • Madhura Balasubramaniam, 2024. "Critical Annotations on Historical Documents: Methodological Possibilities for International Relations Research," India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, , vol. 80(1), pages 164-174, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:80:y:2024:i:1:p:164-174
    DOI: 10.1177/09749284231225687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09749284231225687
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09749284231225687?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sonika Gupta, 2021. "Frontiers in Flux: Indo-Tibetan Border: 1946–1948," India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, , vol. 77(1), pages 42-58, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Noel Mariam George, 2023. "Reflections on Multidisciplinary Scholarship in the Study of Himalayan Borders and Borderlands," India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, , vol. 79(1), pages 109-127, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:80:y:2024:i:1:p:164-174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.