Darshan Vijay Vigneswaran is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam. With expertise in migration, state building, political geography, and outer space, he leads research projects on ‘Migration Politics in the Global South’ and ‘Decolonizing Outer Space’. He is also a Senior Editorial Fellow for the journal Migration Politics and a Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Society, WITS University. Dr. Vigneswaran has published numerous influential papers and books, particularly in migration, territoriality, and sovereignty, including The inconsistency of immigration policy: the limits of “Top-down” approaches (with Ernesto de León), Hacking migration control: Repurposing and reprogramming deportability (with Anja K Franck), Migrant protection regimes: Beyond advocacy and towards exit in Thailand, and The terrestrial trap: International Relations beyond Earth (with Enrike van Wingerden)

Where do you see the most exciting research/debates happening in your field?

I’m currently watching a new field of research emerge – and that in itself is exciting. We have been doing historical and policy-based studies of outer space for decades, but the critical and inter-disciplinary research on this topic has only just begun. Pioneers like Daniel Deudney, Dimitrios Stroikos and Mai’a Cross have laid out pathways that IR will be following for many years to come. Empirically, IR lags far behind other disciplines, and particularly anthropology. People like Janet Vertesi, Linda Messeri and David Valentine have been providing us with the sort of up-close understanding of the politics of the space industry that IR needs to begin asking meaningful questions about. Debates, unfortunately, are still a few years away.

How has the way you understand the world changed over time, and what (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking?

My professional work is intensely social and interactive. So my ‘influencers’ are not necessarily canonical. On politics generally, I would say that the most significant change has been to basically give up on the concept of ‘the state’ entirely. Every time I see that concept deployed, or use it myself, I just feel so thoroughly uneasy. It is just such a chimera. So unhelpful. People like Loren Landau, Julia Hornberger and Anja Franck have encouraged me to look to more organic and bottom-up processes of constructing political order. And they do it through richly qualitative work in the Global South. This sort of work not only provokes doubt about some of the very lofty ideas that circulate in IR circles, but also opens up our theories to genuinely emancipatory political possibilities.

As regards the recent move to outer space, I think Enrike van Wingerden is by far the most influential person. She is a straight up genius, and my bet is that you’ll be citing her name a lot in the years to come. She has an intellectual daringness combined with genuine empathy and humility—a rare combination. When it comes to outer space, I think she just had a good nose for sniffing out a budding and exciting field. Our piece together on the ‘Terrestrial Trap’ was such a joy to write because, once you start to think about outer space, it is so obvious that IR scholars ‘Don’t look up’ to the skies above. At the same time: it needed to be said before we could move on.

What sparked your recent interest in outer space research, and why do you believe IR scholars should focus more on it?

I’ve been interested in territoriality and mobility for a while. Colleagues in my cohort will tell you I developed an unhealthy obsession with John Ruggie’s work on the topic while writing my dissertation. Back then I was really curious with the fact that the territorial ‘design’ of political order is hard-wired really early on in their history and can become pretty deeply........

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