Autism in International Relations: A critical assessment of International Relations’ autism metaphors

Abstract

In this article, I explain how International Relations scholarship relates to ableism. Ableism is a sociopolitical system of narratives, institutions, and actions collectively reinforcing an ideology that benefits persons deemed able-bodied, able-minded, and normal by others, and devalues, limits, and discriminates against those deemed physically and/or mentally disabled and abnormal. International Relations scholars have been quick to utilize disability metaphors as rhetorical support for their arguments and analyses. This article discusses how metaphors in general — and disability metaphors in particular — get their meaning from various other discourses and narratives. International Relations scholars, in the case of disability metaphors, often draw from discourses and narratives that perpetuate ableism. I demonstrate how disability metaphors can be ableist by researching how several International Relations foreign policy analysts and theorists have applied autism metaphors. I argue that International Relations’ uses of autism metaphors are ableist insomuch as they shape or reinforce understandings of autism that often oversimplify, overgeneralize, or otherwise misrepresent autism and Autistic people in ways that portray autism negatively. In the conclusion, I reflect on the importance of a disability studies program in International Relations and the broad set of topics that such a program should pursue.