Settler imperial ordering: Settler colonialism and the production of hierarchical sovereignties

Abstract How does settler colonialism shape world politics? While the framework of settler colonialism has become increasingly established across disciplines to analyse the structure and logics of settler societies, international relations (IR) scholarship continues to treat it as peripheral to global politics. This article challenges the view that settler colonialism is a matter of domestic politics with little relevance for world politics, demonstrating that it functions as an imperial logic and practice that continues to shape the norms, practices, and distribution of power that underpin world politics. By foregrounding the relationships between settler colonialism and imperialism, the article argues that, in international relations, settler colonialism is a function of imperial ordering that both relies on and reproduces racialised hierarchies of sovereignty. The argument is illustrated through a critical examination of Australia as a case study. As a settler colony that emerged within, and continues to benefit from, imperial networks, Australia exemplifies the enduring entanglements of settler colonialism and imperial ordering in the Asia-Pacific. This article contributes to emerging efforts to bring settler colonial analysis to IR. It offers a critique of the discipline’s limited engagement with settler colonialism in the analysis of imperial politics and underscores the need to confront how settler colonialism continues to structure international relations, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.