Literature Positioning (io-literature-positioning)

IO is read by international-relations scholars across paradigms (rationalist, constructivist, institutionalist) and research areas (IPE, security, institutions). Positioning is therefore about placing your paper inside a recognizable IR debate and showing the move you make in it — not a citation pile, and not a domestic-politics literature with an IR veneer.

When to trigger

• Drafting or revising the introduction and the "contribution" paragraph
• A reviewer said you "missed the key IR work" or "don't engage the debate"
• Your case is solid but the paper doesn't connect to a general IR argument
• You need to distinguish your contribution from the closest prior IR papers

How IO wants the literature engaged