An Intersectional Lens to Look at a Turbulent World and Bring Change

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality is vital for addressing complex global challenges, urging a shift in policies and cooperation strategies.

In 1989, American legal race scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality to refer to the double discrimination of racism and sexism faced by Black women. While double or multiple forms of discrimination against women was, and is, not new, she gave it a word; one that has, in 2024, found its ways into everyone’s lexicon. Its application has become widespread and it has become near impossible to speak of any forms of policy, especially on critical aspects of human or environmental security, without stressing the need for an intersectional approach. And rightly so.

The goal, for those who understand and use this terminology smartly, is to address the system and course correct on that – fix the system as it were, so that our collective futures are more secure. But when systems, both global and domestic, continue to operate within outdated methodologies and approaches, the concepts and application of intersectionality need to be widened, and brought into the global order debates, for change to truly happen.

The global rules-based order and traditional institutions and leaders are now proving ineffective – to deal with conflicts that are emerging from long-standing unresolved issues, from Congo to Gaza, or challenges that are arising out of climate change, and emerging security risks. The fragmentation seen in 2024, the year of elections but also the year of divisive voices at the global stage, and a universal lack of adherence to values is somewhat unprecedented in recent times. Emerging powers, while pushing back at the contours of an order that has not always favoured them, lack the coherence and unity to be truly disruptive. The power of western designed and led blocs might be waning, but they still continue to hold.

There are many reasons for this – from rising nationalism to the lack of real financial commitment to global challenges. To explain this, security and strategy pundits will point to the shoring up of national power, including diplomatic, economic and military power, especially by emerging economies. What is often lacking is a wider understanding of that national power, the multiple forms of invisible power structures within a nation state that shape identity, historical inequality and other factors. Because of the interconnectedness of our world, we are all trapped in these systems we are supposedly trying to disrupt. However, understanding and using an intersectional approach has aided those working in the field of development policies, climate and migration or food and health security to open up their thinking and find solutions that can be transformative. The range of people across sectors now working on these challenges speaks to a positive change. There is value in learning from this approach in how we rethink national and international cooperation, and future security strategies.

The Summit of the Global South, convened by India in 2023, might have served to bring together nations bound by historical colonialism and the constraints of western led global mechanisms; however United Nations voting patterns in 2023 and 2024 still show us that aspects of race, religion, economic inequality and others prevent a more cohesive voice. South Asia, connected in terms of several identity factors from a historical perspective or in terms of climate change risks, continues to remain the least connected on global issues.

Applying the concepts of intersectionality, not where different forms of inequality is simply added up (colonialism + race + economic/technology suppression), but where there is a better understanding of how systems of inequality interact with one another to create distinct outcomes, might aid in nation states forming smarter alliances that hold. The lens of intersectionality offers an unconventional approach to understanding compounded challenges, one that traditional forms of security realpolitik or theory might not quite grasp, especially when those theories were fundamentally speaking to a small audience.

One of the biggest questions being asked today in the space of international relations is the need and ability to balance national interests, with a set of norms and values that do not hold double standards and are adhered to. Thus, broadening institutions beyond the post World War II consensus that excluded most of the world or bodies formed only based on economic performance such as the UN Security Council or the G7 is one way forward. But what is the basis of these new institutions and what constitutes fair representation become questions to consider. It is also important to consider that historic grievances are not the only lens to form solutions, and understand the tangible challenges are, the people they will affect, and the actors we look to and work with for sustainable lasting solutions.

Nation states are fundamentally guided by a security lens and while this is unlikely to change, a lens that allows for an intersectoral approach is the way forward to deal with a future where many challenges that might have once been termed as possible are now likely. Communities, nations and international systems need new strategies, maximum options, and a mix of multiple approaches. National grand strategy needs ideas that inspire and open our thinking to new innovative ways to more effectively change systems that are beneficial to all nations and the people within them. The question is whether we want to be inspired.

Ambika Vishwanath is co-founder and director, Kubernein Initiative and DFAT Maitri Fellow, La Trobe University. The views expressed are personal. This article was originally published by Hindustan Times in November, 2024.