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Meditations on ‘international friendship’: Situating twinning in global struggles for solidarity, recognition, and restitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2023

Holly Eva Ryan Open the ORCID record for Holly Eva Ryan [Opens in a new window]
Holly Eva Ryan*
Affiliation:
Reader in International Relations, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
*
Email: h.ryan@qmul.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article takes the practice of twinning as an entry point for problematising conventional accounts of ‘international friendship’ in the field of International Relations. In particular, the paper zeroes in on three examples of twinning practice, past and present, that have challenged the status quo: twinnings established in opposition to the Contra war in Nicaragua; twinning as an act of recognition for communities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; and twinning as a vehicle for the recovery and return of sacred artefacts to post-colonial Kenya. Through these examples, it argues for an alternative conceptualisation of international friendship – one that pushes beyond the methodological nationalism and ontological rigidity of dominant approaches.

Keywords

affectcarefriendshipIR theorysolidaritytwinningworld-making
Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the British International Studies Association.

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39 Ibid.

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60 Anonymised research participant, 2020.

61 Anonymised research participant, 2020.

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63 Ibid.

64 Dan Hicks, ‘Has the Sarr-Savoy Report had any effect since it was published?’, Apollo Magazine (6 January 2020), available at: {https://www.apollo-magazine.com/sarr-savoy-report-sally-price-dan-hicks/}.

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67 Ibid.

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69 Ibid.

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