Western Superwhales or Ballenas Hermanas? Agency, Power, and Identity in the International Politics of Whaling & Whale Conservation

Abstract

In this dissertation, I examine how actors historically marginalized in international relations – theory and practice -- may find or create agentic spaces in global politics. I use the case of Latin American countries in the history and politics of whaling and whale conservation to advance our understanding of marginalized agency. Willing participants in whaling and whale conservation politics since their independence in the 1800s, these countries’ perspectives have largely been marginalized in International Relations (IR) theory and practice. Their organization and emergence as the Grupo Buenos Aires (GBA) in 2005 can be read as an act of marginalized agency within the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and provides an excellent case to consider more general treatment of agency in IR. It provides an excellent case for analyzing not just the condition and enablers of marginality but also the conditions of emergence, insofar as after almost 200 years of marginalization in whaling politics, a group of so-called less powerful actors were able to mobilize and, to some extent, have their voices heard at the IWC. I draw from Postcolonial IR and other critical theories within the discipline, to engage with the larger Global IR project, which has emerged since 2014 as a unifying umbrella for those concerned with pluralizing and decolonizing IR. Specifically, I ask, 1) When, why, and how are marginalized actors able to find or create agentic spaces in global politics? What enables or constrains the agency of marginalized actors in global politics? 2) What is the role, if any, of geopolitical identities in constraining or empowering marginalized agents? I.e., what kinds of agency, subjectivity, and power relations do different geopolitical binaries enable or constrain? 3) How do dynamics of agency recognition, misrecognition, and nonrecognition impact actors’ abilities to influence conservation policy and practice at the international, regional, and domestic levels? What role do academic practices play in these dynamics?To answer these questions, I apply discourse as theory and method, and I propose a new definition that de-essentializes and decouples agency from identity, power, and interests; it provides for a fully relational understanding of agency that also takes into account the role of scholarly research in reproducing representational practices that may hinder marginalized actors from emerging as fully-fledged actors of global politics. The first empirical chapters (4-6) draw from Postcolonial IR and Discourse Theory, to ‘change the subjects’ of IR (Sabaratnam 2011); the analyses shift the standpoint and take Latin American actors’ perspectives seriously, which lays the groundwork for understanding their actions and behaviors. The first line of argument, grounded in my discourse approach, is that for agency to ‘exist and matter,’ it has first to exist discursively. I show how, whether in the broader IR literature, in the English language news coverage of IWC meetings, or in policy disputes on the IWC floor, a small group of actors has held the power to define what reality is and which ‘actors matter’ in global politics. By shifting the standpoint of analysis and dissociating agency from power, I show how Latin American actors have always had a voice, and have always ‘mattered,’ even when they did not ‘achieve what they wanted.’ Importantly, shifting the standpoint of analysis shows how these dynamics of agency nonrecognition and misrecognition are more than academic blindspots; they have mattered for policy and for conservation practice. Understanding these dynamics is key to understanding and explaining State behavior, including GBA’s emergence in 2005.Apply discourse theory to an analysis of GBA’s emergence is key to answering the research questions. In the last empirical chapters (7-9), I show how analyzing identity as a dynamic process of identification brings to the fore the role of agency in identity-making and the co-constitution of interests and identity. I argue that my proposed conceptualization of agency better allows for an understanding of when, why, and how Latin America became a relevant actor at the IWC, what kinds of processes have enabled or constrained their agency, and what lessons, if any, are there for the GBA, other marginalized actors, and IR scholars. A key contribution of this analysis is that the notion of ‘recruitment’ in discourse theory is one that privileges agency over coercion or instrumental rationality. The history of the IWC is full of ‘recruitment strategies,’ yet no country has ever accepted those images, or subject positions, as representative of their experience; rather, they take offense to them. I show how the GBA grew from four countries to 11 in a short period of time because it articulated positions, goals, and ideals that actors related to; it reflected their experience. Finally, discourse theory also provided a framework for analyzing how these dynamics of agency nonrecognition and misrecognition have evolved. By grounding these dynamics in specific policy contexts, through IWC disputes over the creation of a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary, and over the allocation of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling quotas, I show the relevance of a theoretical framework that can account for the role of human subjectivity in shaping State positioning, and for marginality as a spectrum, not a binary. As actors emerge from absolute marginality, a Globalized IR needs to be ready to account for those new power relations in a way that does not suppress more marginalized voices but also does not suppress newly found ones.