Recognition and International Relations

Abstract

This contribution introduces a reconceptualization of (mis)recognition that stresses “creative agency” (gift, work, etc.) as a condition of self-consciousness. Drawing on Hegel’s Phenomenology, I argue that recognition struggles are often less motivated by the actors’ desire to have a special status than by the desire to make a “contribution” to society, to “give” something. The content of a socially valued contribution-gift (as per Marcel Mauss) varies from one society to another but it is linked to the very ability of actors to act on their “own” and to shape their environment. Thus, subjects identifying with political units or social groups with little recognized agency, while imagining significant abilities to contribute to a given society, will easily feel slighted. It is impossible to be recognized as “subjects” if one is denied the ability to “contribute” to a given society. I apply this perspective to the study of international relations and illustrate my proposal with Islamic State violence. These individuals experience “individual” agency denial inside the ‘national’ community but also agency denial of “Muslim sovereignty” from the outside. This “upscaling” of agency misrecognition is enhanced by the possible identification of an individual with a collective actor and the associated emotional investment in such a community.