International Deviants and the Concept of Stigma Politics

In this chapter, I draw on the interactionist perspective in sociology to conceptualize “stigma politics” as an interactive process of social construction of deviance in international affairs. Specifically, I elaborate on the ways how deviant categories—social identities, acts, practices, and discourses—are negotiated, contested, stigmatized, and possibly destigmatized in international realm. In this perspective, stigmatization represents a widespread social practice of (re)constructing deviant images through discourse and practices, separating the “normal” from “deviant” in international society.