Postcolonial theory has had the most impact in disciplines such as literature and, to some degree, history, and perhaps the least impact in the discipline of politics. However, there is growing interest in postcolonial theory within politics, and interest in especially high in the subfield of international relations. This text provides a comprehensive survey of how postoclonial theory shapes our understanding of international relations.The text distinguishes between 'non-western' politics/IR, which can often be little more than the usual tools of the discipline applied from a different location, and that work which uses postcolonial theory to raise theoretical questions about the character and adequacy of the discipline. It asks whether postcolonialism is another perspective on IR, to be added to a host of others (realist, critical, constructivist etc), or whether, in calling the founding assumptions and core categories of the discipline into question, it is a fundamental critique of the discipline.Some of the essays present a postcolonial reading of IR, while others present genealogies that demonstrate the European/American origins of its founding assumptions, and enquire whether the Eurocentrism of the discipline is something that can and should be overcome, or is constitutive of the discipline.