Decolonial Pluriversality: Unveiling Genocide, Epistemicide, and Historicide in the Foundations of the United States

Abstract This article contributes to the systematic and clear delineation of a decolonial methodology of pluriversality, which aims to critique the foundations and colonial legacies shaping the birth and institutional structures of the world’s most powerful country: the United States of America. Though the differences between decolonial understandings of pluriversality and other approaches to research in international relations often create difficulties in communicating across paradigmatic borders, the article aims to provide a more systematic and understandable set of concepts, which highlight the advantages and limitations that emerge from this kind of research. To achieve this goal, the article begins by discussing the relational basis of this approach and its implications for the study of international relations and global politics. Then, the article focuses on the examination of epistemic politics, which include epistemic claims, desires of domination, and the enactment of different kinds of violence. These sets of epistemic politics are then analytically broken down into ontological, epistemological, and temporal dimensions, which sustain epistemicidal, genocidal, and historicidal forms of violence. These patterns are illustrated through the empirical analysis of the foundations that were institutionalized into the United States.