ABSTRACT
Drawing on recent images of devastation of human lives and bodies in Syria, this chapter examines how images of horror help us to think about the non-human/non-humanity in international relations. The image of horror, despite its obvious gruesomeness, can enable a comprehensive rethinking of international relations beyond humanity or, more precisely, beyond human-centered assumptions that have shaped the contours of International Relations (IR) as a way of thinking the acceptable in world politics versus the non-acceptable. Horror’s push towards non-humanity demands that we reconsider the role and place of the unacceptable, the intolerable, or the unrepresentable image in international relations/IR.
