Book launch: Rhetorical Powers: How Rising States Shape International Order

Dr Sasikumar Sundaram will present his new book Rhetorical Powers: How Rising States Shape International Order, followed by a discussion and Q&A.

This book investigates how India, Brazil, and China use rhetoric as a form of power in a hierarchical international system. It advances three core claims.

First, silencing is built into global order: drawing on feminist and postcolonial insights, the book shows how international rules and institutions silences Global South voices.

Second, not all states stay silent. Rhetoric becomes a strategic weapon for non‑Western policymakers navigating Western dominance, rooted in their long-standing anti‑imperial and anti‑colonial traditions.

Finally, these policymakers continually innovate their anti-imperial and anti-colonial rhetorical repertoire, bending global norms and rules to pursue power.

The book maps these strategies across India, Brazil, and China. The book challenges the traditional ideas of realism, rhetorical entrapment, and postcolonialism offering a novel understanding of power politics under conditions of hierarchy.

Meet our speakers and chair

Dr Sasikumar Sundaram is a Senior Lecturer in Foreign Policy and Security at the Department of International Politics at City St Georges, University of London. He is currently Vice Chair of the Global South Caucus of the International Studies Association (ISA). He received his PhD from Central European University (CEU), and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and American University, Washington DC. His research focuses on power politics, global order, and the global south. His research has been published in International Theory, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of International Political Theory, and Journal of Global Security Studies, among other places.

Professor John Hobson is Emeritus Professor at the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield. He has published extensively and shaped the field of IR and IPE through his critique of Eurocentrism, historiography of IR/IPE and Global Historical Sociology of IR.

Dr Ida Roland Birkvad is an LSE Fellow in International Relations in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Her research engages with questions related to international political theory and postcolonial politics and history. Ida conducted her doctoral research in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL), where she was supervised by Professor Kimberly Hutchings. Her PhD was supported by the Leverhulme Trust. Prior to her doctoral research, Ida worked at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) where her research was focused on South Asia, migration, international security, and minority politics.

Professor Inderjeet Parmar is Professor of International Politics, City, University of London. His research focuses on Anglo-American foreign policy elites, crises of liberal order and the role of the US and Anglosphere in world affairs. His current book project is on the history and politics of the US foreign policy establishment from Pearl Harbour to the current crises of liberal order American power