Rhetorical Powers: How Rising States Shape International Order (Columbia Studies in International Order and Politics) - Hardcover

Sundaram, Sasikumar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231207824 ISBN 13: 9780231207829

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2026

Synopsis

Recent years have seen a striking resurgence of anti-imperial and anticolonial rhetoric on the international stage, from Global South to Global North and from the Left to the Right. Why do states deploy these forms of rhetoric in global politics? How do practitioners from the so-called non-Western world differ in their use and performance of rhetoric, and in what ways do they shape international order?

Sasikumar Sundaram provides a bold new theory of rhetoric as power politics, demonstrating how non-Western states challenge their silencing within the Western-led international order. He argues that, in the deeply hierarchical international system, states in the lower rungs resort to rhetorical performances in order to be heard. Through anti-imperial and anticolonial rhetorical statecraft, states such as India, Brazil, and China seek to expose and exploit the contradictions in the legitimating principles, norms, and rules of the international system―and, in so doing, pursue and exercise power. Today, as Russia, Europe, and even the United States engage in anti-imperial and anticolonial rhetoric, Sundaram shows why lessons from the non-Western world are crucial to recognizing the dynamics of power politics and global disorder. A bracing challenge to established theories of power in international relations, Rhetorical Powers underscores the need to address enduring forms of silencing within the international order.

About this title

About the Author

Sasikumar Sundaram is a senior lecturer in foreign policy and security in the Department of International Politics at City St George’s, University of London. He is the vice chair of the Global South Caucus of the International Studies Association.

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0231207824
• ISBN 13: 9780231207829
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296