Dehumanization

Abstract Dehumanization exposes how global systems of power erode human dignity by legitimizing exclusion, subjugation, and violence against marginalized populations. It operates through narratives and practices that rationalize systemic inequality and sustain hierarchies of humanity. Unlike racialization and economic injustice, which are largely structural, dehumanization is an actor-driven process that actively produces and normalizes oppression. Evidence from three major global crises, namely the European refugee crisis, the post-9/11 war on terror, and the ongoing war in Gaza, shows how dehumanizing logics intersect with race, class, gender, religion, and disability to justify domination and inequality. These cases demonstrate that dehumanization is a core mechanism of contemporary world politics, reinforcing global hierarchies and intensifying human precarity. Recognizing dehumanization as a central analytic category expands the explanatory power of international relations and political science and affirms the pursuit of justice and human dignity as essential to understanding global crises.