'Interlingual Relations in International Relations: Translation, Meaning, and Global Order'

What happens to global politics when we take translation seriously, not as a technical afterthought, but as a core condition of international life? 

How do diplomatic concepts, legal categories, and political claims change as they move between languages, cultures, and institutions? 

Join us for the launch of Interlingual Relations: Global Politics in a Polyglot World (Michigan University Press), a timely new edited volume that places translation at the heart of International Relations (IR) scholarship and practice.

International politics is often conducted in two languages or more. Since no two languages map perfectly onto each other, what can be said in one language may be difficult, or even impossible, to say in another. Editors and contributors propose Interlingual Relations as a foundational approach to studying how meanings travel across time, space, cultures, and state borders, and how global order is negotiated through the frictions and possibilities of translation.

Drawing on diverse methodologies and perspectives from across IR’s intellectual traditions, the contributors offer a truly global lens on international affairs. They move beyond the hegemony of English and connect 'high' politics to everyday life. The event also explores translation as a form of world-making, where roles, rules, and responsibilities can appear stable while sounding and meaning differently to different actors. The event will reflect on the political stakes of translation in research, diplomacy, and ethical practice.

Organiser

This event is organised by Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS University London.