Anthropocentric International Relations: Reclaiming the Metaphysical and the Spiritual ‘Non-human’

In the midst of an anthropocentric Earth System —marked by planetary climate emergencies resulting from geologic human interferences—and the anarchic International System politically operated by self-serving states, lie communities whose relationships with nature have rendered them both marginal and frontline actors. As communities that have historically and symbiotically been enmeshed with the ecosystems they inhabit, indigenous communities often do not adhere or conform to the narrow categorizations and governing logics of the modern nation-state. This systemic invisibalization paradoxically situates them at the peripheral margins of dominant disciplinary discourses and governance principles and mechanisms, while they find themselves at the frontlines of developmental and ecological crises. This article discusses whether and how an Anthropocentric International Relations can create space for indigenous communities. In order to effectively do so, it advocates for giving credence in the discipline and practice of International Relations—to the metaphysical, and the spiritual, ‘non-human’.