International relations and peripheral Orientalism: Sectarian readings from Latin America

Abstract

Sectarian readings explain the conflicts in the Middle East through religious variables. This paper criticises their reproduction in Latin American international relations, which draw on the epistemological and ontological assumptions of hegemonic/ Western approaches to international relations. This is not inconsequential, as it constitutes an identity politics that simultaneously constructs Western identity and reaffirms and perpetuates prejudices that "other" the Middle East. From Latin America, such readings form part of peripheral Orientalism and produce subjectivity effects that distance the Latin American region from the Global South, as well as consolidating their marginal position in global power relations.