Where exactly am I sitting at that table? Race, Prejudice, and Perpetual (In)security in Global Politics

Who hasn’t heard about women must sit at the table? In this sense, the table is a place of influence and power. Critical IR, particularly those focussing on women’s participation in peace negotiations, in security discourses, and advocacy campaigns emphasise women must have a seat at the table to contribute to meaningful change. In this piece, I reflect on my everyday experiences of (in)security in teaching and practising security. I argue that structural measures of inclusion and diversity in the discipline of critical IR and security studies depoliticise meaningful and truly transformative inclusion by focussing on indicators, deliverables, action plans, and outcomes. These make gender hyper-visible rendering race, class, linguistic and other markers invisible. In this sense, having a seat at the table means nothing, as individuals could still remain powerless in the absence of genuine commitment of others occupying key positions in that table.